SF Expert Services

STAKEHOLDER FORUM EXPERT SERVICES

For more than 25 years, Stakeholder Forum has been a bridge between those who have a stake in sustainable development, and the international fora where decisions are made in their name. A hub for innovative and creative thinking, our team – along with a range of experts spanning the globe – have been at the forefront and at the table where multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and their related processes were agreed upon and are reviewed.

Looking at the landscape of expert services offered around global and national sustainable development matters, in particular the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), there appears to be a saturation of different webinars, courses, and consulting advice that is being offered. However, very few of those offerings include expert practitioners with firsthand experience and knowledge as well as the historical perspective and background on these issues that ‘being there’ brings.

Those experts and practitioners have contributed to this work in many different ways and in many settings throughout the years. In the current circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, expert advice on Agenda 2030, the SDGs, and the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) processes is more important than ever. Thus, an organization’s ability to provide expert services to a wide range of constituencies, including governments at both national and local levels, various international and regional organizations, civil society, academia, the private sector, and other stakeholders is a valuable capacity-building and training asset that Stakeholder Forum can offer. Empowering these constituencies would have a ripple effect on making a meaningful difference in the lives of people through sustainable development.

SF Expert Services include but are not limited to the following thematic areas:

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement
• Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs)
• The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA)
• Environmental Rights and Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights
• Multistakeholder Partnerships for Sustainable Development (MSPs)
• Advocacy
• Strategic Planning and Policy Coherence
• Capacity Building
• Event Planning and Facilitation

SF also specializes in identifying ‘gaps’ in knowledge and practice that need to be filled to accelerate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and related global agreements.

 

Contact us if you want our expert services, wish to speak to us, or just want to know more.

 

Our experts:

Stakeholder Forum’s global reach enables us to recruit experts on an ad-hoc basis to meet current and future clients’ unique needs. They include a wide range of practitioners, many of whom have decades of first-hand experience spanning back to the seminal Stockholm Conference in 1972.  Our range of experts include, but are not limited to:

Jan-Gustav began working with the United Nations on environment and governance in the 1970s, and a first assignment brought him to Latin America.  He has taught about the UN for four decades, worked with the UN Commission for Sustainable Development for 15 years, worked as an NGO liaison officer at the UN HQ, worked for the Norwegian Foreign Office as a diplomat at embassies in Botswana and Uganda, and for 15 years was the director of a Norwegian aid-NGO with projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. (read more)

 

 

 

Leida Rijnhout has been a key advisor to Stakeholder Forum for many years, and before joining the SF family worked as a freelancer (www.leapfrog2SD.org) and was the programme coordinator of Resource Justice and Sustainability at Friends of the Earth Europe. In her position as Executive Director of ANPED and director of Global Policies at the European Environmental Bureau, Leida facilitated and coordinated the global NGO community to realize their active engagement in United Nations processes on Sustainable Development and the Environment. (read more)

 

 

 

Professor Tilbury is a change-maker and academic leader in Sustainable Development, credited with having developed the initial frameworks for this area of learning. She was a member of the Board of WWF Australia that brought Earth Hour to the World in 2007 and has been actively involved in international initiatives that inspire transitions towards sustainability. Her 2020 ‘Today4Tomorrow’ initiative is focused on embedding intergenerational rights in public policy and governance frameworks. (read more)

 

 

 

 

A former Chair current President of Stakeholder Forum, Derek has been a driving force at Stakeholder Forum for nearly 20 years. He served 30 years in the UK Civil Service, the latter 6 years as Director-General for Environmental Protection within the Department of the Environment until he retired from the Civil Service in 1996. Derek represented the United Kingdom and was Chair of the Management Board of the European Environment Agency (1995-1999) and was on the Board of the Environment Agency for England and Wales (1996-98), having been involved with its planning and creation. He has been a non-executive director of Severn Trent PLC, and chair of Jupiter Global Green Investment Trust.

In addition to his work with Stakeholder Forum, Derek continuities to share his knowledge and experience as a Board Member of several other prominent environmental organisations.

 

Felix is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, at the University of North Carolina in the United States. He has been active at the UN since 1990 and has focused on issues such as water, climate, governance, environmental security, and stakeholder engagement.

Felix’s focus at UNC has been on the Nexus of Water, Food, Energy with Climate Change. He has co-directed the Water Institute’s two conferences on the subject in 2014 and 2018. This resulted in the 2016 co-editing for Routledge of “The Water, Food, Energy and Climate Nexus” with Dr. Jamie Bartram, Director of the Water Institute, with a Foreword by HRH Prince Charles. (read more)

 

Charles is a sustainability leader advancing governance for sustainable development, stakeholder engagement, renewable energy technologies, and sustainable waste management. From 2002 until 2018, he worked in the UK local government waste and resource sector developing and managing recycling, composting, and waste minimisation services for communities and businesses, and he continues to advance similar local efforts in The Americas.

From 2000 to 2002, Charles was Stakeholder Forum’s Deputy Director and UK Co-ordinator, where he worked alongside then Executive Director Felix Dodds and Co-Chairs Margaret Brusasco-MacKenzie and Derek Osborn in the run-up to the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. From 1999 to 2000, he worked on sustainability and stakeholder engagement at the then Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum. (read more)

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Additional Resources

Stakeholder Forum will also draw upon its existing team of Associates and Advisors to fill in any gaps in research, related skills, and resources needed to deliver its expert services.  Our full listing of Associates and Advisors can be found here.