Project Name: Communication and Public Participation Case Study for the Caspian Sea
Country: submitted by Iran; participating countries - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan
Contact Person:
Melina Seyfollahzadeh
Grantsand Public Participation Manager
Programme Coordination Unit – CEP
Tel: (+98-21) 2204 2285/2204 2935/2205 9577
Fax: (+98-21) 2205 1850
#63, Golestan Alley, Vali-Asr Avenue, Tehran, 1966733413, I.R. Iran
www.caspianenvironment.org
http://cep.blogfa.com/
Project Description:
What is the CEP?
The Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) is an umbrella inter-governmental environment programme of the five Caspian countries namely Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan around the Caspian Sea. CEP is supported financially and technically by international organizations including the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP, UNEP, and the World Bank and by the European Union/Tacis. CEP’s overall goal is to promote the sustainable development and management of the Caspian environment in order to obtain optimal long-term benefits for the human population of the region. The programme therefore belongs to the people who play a key role in achieving CEP objectives.
Identifying the stakeholders
Communication plays an important role in implementing CEP activities. To have a constructive dialogue between the CEP and people, two-way communications has been sought throughout the programme. Our communication objectives include environmental awareness raising with emphasis on community-level understanding of the Caspian environment concerns ; sensitising decision makers to the issues and to the need for adopting corrective and preventive policy measures and reinforcing additional support to the programm.
Towards these objectives the CEP began to identify major stakeholders as well as their perceptions of environmental issues and solutions at the beginning of the programme. One of our first steps was to carry out a comprehensive ground- truthing exercise which aimed to review and assess the status of the public participation around the Caspian including a review of regional, national and local institutional and legal structures, cultural characteristics, means of communication and access to information and justice on environmental. The exercise was carried out through questionnaires and face-to-face discussions in each Caspian country by CEP advisors. This was followed by the formulation of a regional Stakeholder Analysis Report to identify those who had a ‘stake‘ and whose interests could have helped or hampered the programme in achieving its objectives. The Report provided insight into the ways stakeholders perceive issues and the policies that attempt to deal with them. It also provided recommendations on how to better inform stakeholders and engage them in a constructive dialogue to help improve the Caspian environment, and how to provide them with a better understanding of the issues at hand. CEP major stakeholders were identified as those who have an interest in the Caspian Sea; have influence or can influence its programmes; and are affected directly or indirectly by decision-making. These are mainly the national governments, international partners, NGOs, CBOs, local authorities, private sector, educational institutions, industries and local media of the Caspian littoral countries.
An institutional arrangement was made within the Programme to liaise with people at different regional, national and local levels. As an example, five Advisors were recruited to communicate with people at the public and community level. Small groups representing different stakeholders from the region were also organized as Caspian Concern Groups (CCG) to serve as voluntary bodies with an interest and commitment to support dialogue with the Programme and to air the concerns of local communities related to Caspian environmental issues.
Databases, workshops, website and grants
To facilitate communications, specifically at the local and national level, CEP prepared an NGO database to improve linkages between interested Caspian environmental NGOs, as well as a media database. Workshops were held for journalists from different media in the Caspian region to provide them with hands-on skill building for developing environmental news stories for publication in national, local and international media.
CEP communications with stakeholders is enhanced with the aid of a user-friendly website (www.caspianenvironment.org) containing updated information on environmental activities in the Caspian region. There is also a unique electronic library with a comprehensive scientific database and technical reports developed under the Programme. The CEP news “E-Bulletin” is delivered monthly through the CEP website and acts as a window for all stakeholders to express their views, share news and communicate with others. CEP also publishes books, brochures, educational materials and promotional items, each bearing information and slogans about the Caspian Sea environment. Each publication has its own target group. Soft copies of publications are available on the website.
To have more effective communications at the national and local level, CEP designed two Grants Programmes to encourage the public to participate in CEP activities. The larger MSGP (Matched Small Grants Programme), with grants up to USD 50,000, supports pilot projects that address urgent Caspian Sea environmental issues. The smaller MEG (Micro Environment Grants), with grants up to USD 3,000, support projects raising public awareness, knowledge and understanding of Caspian environmental issues. Many interesting completed and ongoing project examples under the CEP Grants Programme can be found at www.caspianenvironment.org/grants
Strategic public participation
Finally, in order to have a strategic approach towards communication objectives, CEP formulated a Public Participation Strategy (PPS) for the Caspian Sea which helps enhancing our communications and other objectives. The Caspian PPS was based on the GT survey and Stakeholder Analysis Report and through a consultative, participatory, transparent and inclusive process within the Caspian region.
The PPS serves as a flexible framework and addresses stakeholder participation in Caspian environmental initiatives through capacity building and strengthening the legal and institutional basis. It establishes new formal and informal institutions for public participation and facilitates a systematic and transparent information flow to raise public awareness. The desired outcome of PPS is to enhance and inform stakeholders and facilitate inter-sectoral participation in the management of the Caspian environment. The document divides CEP’s target audiences into three groups at the regional, national and local levels and provides recommendations for actions expected to be taken by them.
The Caspian PPS was endorsed by the CEP Steering Committee Meeting in February 2006 and Operational Plans for activities at the various levels (local, national and regional) are being developed, together with monitoring and evaluation indicators in each Caspian country based on the PPS and priority areas in each country.
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