Struggling to mainstream climate issues? Lessons learnt from CDKN’s knowledge brokering experience
Struggling to mainstream climate issues? Lessons learnt from CDKN’s knowledge brokering experience
Since 2010, CDKN has supported decision-makers in designing and delivering climate-resilient development through a combination of knowledge, research and advisory support. Our approach has been to facilitate locally-owned and locally-led processes, working in partnership with governmental and non-governmental actors at multiple scales.
Through this work we have come to recognise the critical – though often invisible – role that ‘intermediaries’ or ‘brokers’ play in linking knowledge producers with knowledge users, and in managing complex processes for effective decisions and actions on climate change.
In 2018, we started to sharpen our focus on 'knowledge brokering' as a means to accelerate and amplify climate action. We have been working closely with stakeholders to promote evidence-based decision-making by fostering learning, collaboration and leadership through capacity strengthening and integrating diverse forms of knowledge.
Along the way, CDKN has sought to document our learning and that of our partners to better understand how climate knowledge and evidence can inform and translate into policy and action. This reflection process has explored a range of tools and approaches for enhancing the use of knowledge in decision-making, the barriers encountered in facilitating change, and the lessons that may be useful to others navigating similar challenges.
We have identified seven key challenges to mainstreaming climate issues across governance scales and sectors – from national to local government actors, as well as with communities on the ground. These challenges form the structure of this learning series.
Review the challenges below – each is accompanied by a set of pathways and case studies that illustrate the knowledge brokering approaches used, along with key takeaways that highlight the main lessons learned.
How the challenges were developed
The lessons presented in these documents first emerged during a series of learning exchanges that brought together CDKN’s partners in Asia and Africa to share how they had worked to mainstream climate issues into decision-making processes.
These exchanges surfaced key challenges encountered along the way and generated a range of ideas and approaches to address them. A series of in-depth interviews with CDKN’s focal country partners followed, to identify, document and share the strategies they had employed.
While this series is not intended as a definitive guide about climate mainstreaming, we hope readers/you may gain some tips about knowledge brokering approaches and tools that could help integrate knowledge about climate issues into their/your own context.