Consultation Group

The REDD+ Consultation group (CG) was proposed in the Cambodia REDD+ Readiness Roadmap as a body that would provide comments to the REDD+ Taskforce (TF) on the REDD+ Readiness process and provide a forum to represent the views of different stakeholder groups. It is intended to be responsible for providing a link between the Cambodia REDD+ Programme and existing networks of stakeholder groups.

The CG consists of 18 members, made up of 2 members representing each of nine stakeholder groups. These groups were derived from the Roadmap and UN-REDD Programme document, and based on further discussions with stakeholders. The nine groups are:

• Academia
• International organizations
• National NGOs
• Indigenous Peoples
• CSO
• Private Sector
• Community Forest Groups
• Community Protected Area Groups
• Community Fishery Groups

Consistent with UN-REDD stakeholder engagement guidelines, stakeholders were given the responsibility to self-select their representatives. In the case of Indigenous Peoples, the selection process was based on provincial election meetings in the 15 provinces where there are populations of Indigenous Peoples. This approach was developed through discussions with Indigenous Peoples representatives during and following a stakeholder consultation meeting in September, 2012.

For the other stakeholder groups, in order to avoid any suggestion that the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) was directing the process, a “Voluntary Facilitation Committee” (VFC) was established. The nine-member VFC itself was multi-stakeholder by composition and resulted from a nation-wide call for expressions of interest from qualified individuals.

The VFC met a total of 15 times between February and the mid of August 2013, with members rotating the chair at each meeting, in order to decide on all aspects of the CG selection process. The key outputs of the VFC have been:

• Agreement on criteria to be met by eligible candidates for membership of the CG. The criteria varied by stakeholder group.
• Design of the selection process. The process is similar for all groups except for Indigenous Peoples, for whom a provincial election process has been undertaken.
• Agreement on the process for inviting candidates to submit an expression of interest. The process included a mixture of newspaper and online advertisements, dissemination through existing networks (email), and posting on the REDD+ Cambodia web-site.
• Review of submissions received to ensure candidates met the established criteria and that candidates were assigned to the correct stakeholder groups.
• Design and timing of the CG election workshop.
• Design of multiple voting options, including in-person voting at the workshop, and on-line and postal voting before the workshop. Postal voting was intended to meet the needs of the community management groups who have limited internet access, but as there are only two candidates for each group, postal voting was not required.
• Identification of eligible voter lists for each stakeholder group
• Drafting of CG operations guidelines

The CG selection workshop was held on August 29-30, 2013, and the following representatives were selected:

Additional technical and financial support will also be extended to help CG members identify and establish information and feedback mechanisms with their respective constituencies.

Information on CG meetings can be found : Consultation group documents