This project reviewed the effectiveness of various initiatives (including CDKN’s) for supporting international negotiators (in climate change and other fields) and made recommendations to inform CDKN’s work. The review was structured around support for technical assistance, research, knowledge management and partnerships, so as to provide insights across the breadth of CDKN.

The review also provided lessons learnt that can be disseminated among the international climate change stakeholder community, especially the poorest and most climate vulnerable countries.

The main objectives of this project were to:

1)  Increase knowledge surrounding what does and does not work concerning negotiations support

2)  Enhance knowledge of best practice in evaluating the effectiveness of initiatives supporting negotiators and to benchmark CDKN’s Negotiators Support work against other initiatives

The project reviewed the effectiveness of initiatives for supporting international negotiators, primarily in the climate change field, but learning from other fields as appropriate (e.g. trade, and environment) by mapping out the different ways support can be provided (technical assistance, knowledge management, research or partnership support), the different types of funding modality and the different approaches taken (provision of direct support or improving the enabling environment).

In order to ensure a more comprehensive approach, the review included current as well as past initiatives.

Outputs

The project delivered two reports and a set of briefing notes:

1) An evaluation report (internal document for CDKN) containing:

• An analysis of findings from “spot evaluations” of the negotiation support projects commissioned by CDKN, including an outline of progress against outcomes and any lessons learned so far (the number of projects to be evaluated will be determined with CDKN).
• Benchmarking analysis of the negotiation support projects against other (similar) initiatives
• A set of recommendations regarding how we could improve the delivery of our negotiation support to poorest and most climate vulnerable negotiators

2) A final report (external document), containing:

• A literature review on issues surrounding negotiations support in various fields
• A summary of different initiatives to support international negotiators including technical assistance, research, knowledge management and partnerships, including case studies to illustrate successful projects as well as those that have not delivered planned outcomes and to include current and past CDKN negotiation support projects
• An analysis of and commentary on research findings including interviews with at least 10 stakeholders in the negotiation support field
• A review of possible methodologies for monitoring and evaluating outcomes and impacts of projects and programmes to support international negotiators

3) A set of short briefing notes summarising lessons learnt and best practice in negotiation support approaches. Seven briefing notes were produced as required by CDKN.

CDKN funding: £53,000