Within the framework of the Escazú Agreement, we held 3 training sessions for national officials of Argentina´s Climate Change State Secretariat on facilitation techniques and tools. In addition, we designed and facilitated 5 meetings with representatives and specialists from all over the country.
BACKGROUND:
The Secretariat for Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation is an agency that belongs to the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina. This government agency works to address climate change and promote the transition to a sustainable development model.
Within the framework of the Escazú Agreement - the first regional environmental agreement of its kind in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the only one to contain specific provisions on human rights defenders in environmental matters at a global level - and in order to strengthen public participation in environmental decision-making processes, Kubadili developed three training sessions for people in government positions on facilitation techniques and tools. We also designed and facilitated a series of events with the participation of representatives from different civil society organizations, universities, private sector representatives, technical teams and representatives from the provinces and the national government.
Our facilitation team leading conversations with attendees during the participation spaces. Credits: Argentinian Secretariat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation
LISTENING TO THE CHALLENGE:
The Climate Change Secretariat came to us with two challenges: on the one hand, to train national agents in facilitation concepts and techniques so that they can apply them in different instances of citizen participation. On the other hand, to facilitate a series of events with different target audiences, whose common goal would be to generate a collaborative construction of the concept of early participation in environmental issues.
This last point was one of the crucial axes of our accompaniment and joint work, in addition to the training of their work teams in the design and facilitation of future instances of participation.
METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN:
With the objectives and goals defined, both teams began to develop a six-month project that consisted of three stages.
The first was the identification of the target audience. Together, we mapped the actors to be included in the collaborative process of building a definition of the concept of early participation. After meeting with two key actors selected by the Climate Change Secretariat team, we provided the Secretariat with a document with the list of actors to be convened systematized in a map of actors that includes organizations throughout the country related to environmental human rights, sustainable development, environment and participation so that they could then be convened to the collaborative construction processes.
During the second stage, we designed and implemented a training cycle for national government teams. Based on preparatory meetings with the Climate Change Secretariat and a diagnosis of the teams we would be working with, we created a series of training and coaching capsules related to the project's theme. These were aimed at adding value to the day-to-day work of the teams involved. In addition, we developed training materials aimed mainly at strengthening the teams in their capacity to implement participatory processes in which we worked on topics such as: introduction to agility, meeting facilitation techniques, citizen-centered design, among others.
Finally, in the third stage of the project -the most complex and ambitious- both teams designed and implemented participatory processes and representative spaces at national level. We understood that for the construction of a definition of the concept of early participation it was fundamental to plan spaces that included the voices of multiple diversities distributed across the country.
EVENT AND RESULTS:
After several months of research, planning and training, it was time to develop the spaces for participation together with the Climate Change State Secretariat team; the fruit of all our previous work.
Attendees participating in a collaborative activity organized by Kubadili during one of the in-person events held in Buenos Aires. Credits: Argentine Secretariat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation
Two of these events were held in person in the City of Buenos Aires, while the rest were completely virtual.
These spaces, regardless of their modalities, were in charge of a pair of facilitators from Kubadili who worked through strategies and tools based on facilitation techniques and agility to generate the collaborative construction that both teams wished to achieve. Each of the spaces brought together between 15 and 40 representatives of the mapped organizations who worked for three hours with the guidance of a facilitator duo to deepen the importance, moments and conditions necessary for the participation of citizens and thus jointly build the concept of early participation.
The results of each of the meetings were recorded and gathered by the Climate Change Secretariat team and the Kubadili facilitating team in a document that allowed the identification of common elements and served as input for the following meetings and for the preparation of a final document that records and systematizes the results of the participatory process for the construction of the definition of early participation.
Kubadili facilitation team sharing and analysing the results of an activity with attendees. Credits: Argentine Secretariat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation
RESULTS IN NUMBERS:
5 participation spaces, each lasting 3 hours, were facilitated.
Between 20 and 50 people from different organizations from all over the country participated in each space. They represented more than 100 organizations from different sectors related to environmental issues: national and provincial governments, civil society, universities and the private sector.
9 Kubadili specialists participated.
Three 4-hour training sessions were held for approximately 25 agents from different national agencies.