Post 2015 Development Agenda: Guidelines for Country ... - nrg4SD

II. PROCESSPROCESS PRINCIPLES: INCLUSION AND ACCOUNTABILITYAs outlined above, the objective of the country consultations is to “stimulate an inclusive,bottom-up debate on a post-2015 development agenda” in order to complement the existingintergovernmental process. While it strongly depends on the country context what this willrequire in practice, it is critical that the consultations adhere to key process principles in orderto ensure consistency, legitimacy and ownership. The process principles proposed are:INCLUSION: Efforts should be made to open the consultations to all stakeholders in thecountry who will be affected by a post-2015 development agenda, with particular focuson effectively involving those who are commonly underrepresented or marginalized indecision-making processes.ACCOUNTABILITY: Efforts should also be made to ensure that people who participate in theconsultations have access to relevant information and can provide feedback and influence theresults and the process of the consultations. 4The following are suggestions to help ensure the inclusiveness and accountability ofthe consultations.1. Whom to engage?a. Identifying stakeholdersThe quality of the consultation(s) will depend largely on credible representation of particularstakeholder groups, especially those who are often marginalized from conventional processes.Criteria for identifying stakeholder representatives could include credibility; competence andlocal knowledge of development issues; institutional capacity; representation of an otherwisemarginalized community or group; membership-based organizations that are most representativeof constituencies with regard to economic and social issues; accountability to the community orgroup being represented; gender and generational balance; and location in urban, rural orremote areas.Who will participate in the activities? The participants will vary as per the format of theconsultation(s), the geographic scope, budget and timing of the process. The main groups toconsider involving in obtaining input to the post-2015 process could include:4A critical aspect of accountability in any kind of consultation process is to do with who controls the informationthat is generated, how that information is analysed and how it is subsequently used. Another very importantaspect of accountability is transparency — not just about how the results of the consultation are arrived at, butalso transparency in how the consultation itself will relate to the wider process of decision-making about thepost-2015 agenda.20Post-2015 Development Agenda Process: Guideline for Consultations