National Stakeholder Forum on Sustainable Development ...

Facilitators’ Report

National Stakeholder Forum on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dublin Castle, 18th December 2019

Facilitators: Lorna McDowell, XENERGIE, Kieran Murphy, Wholestory

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Background

The Sustainable Development Goals National Stakeholder Forum has a threefold purpose

- Provide a mechanism for key stakeholders to engage on an ongoing basis in the

national implementation of the Goals;

- Directly include voices from groups at risk of social exclusion and/or discrimination in

the national implementation of the Goals;

- Inform further development of the SDG national implementation framework

The Forum meeting on the 18th December 2019 focused on four different elements:

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger. There were four short inputs followed by discussion by

stakeholders;

2. SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals, with a particular emphasis on business. There

were three inputs followed by discussion by stakeholders;

3. A key note address by Minister at the Department of Agriculture Food and the

Marine, Michael Creed T.D. followed by questions from stakeholders;

4. Preparations for the next National Implementation Plan.

The agenda has been included as Appendix 1.

The Forum was facilitated by Kieran Murphy, Wholestory and Lorna McDowell, XENERGIE.

Attendees at the Forum

188 people registered for the Forum and 112 attended on the day.

A survey of attendees (54 people took part in survey), using Slido (see Appendix 2),

identified that:

- 46% of those who took part in the poll were attending their first Forum;

- 15% attending their second Forum;

- 6% attending their third Forum;

- 17% attending their fourth Forum;

- 11% attending their fifth Forum;

- 6% attending their sixth Forum.

A survey of attendees (58 people took part in survey), using Slido, in relation to which sector

they came from, identified that:

- 5% SMEs

- 3% Corporates

- 50% NGOs

- 7% Academia

- 34% Public sector

Process for the day

A number of changes were introduced to the process, responding to feedback from

stakeholders at previous Fora. These changes included:

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- Setting up the room with 18 round tables seating 10 people at each, rather than the

usual theatre style, in order to facilitate greater discussion and engagement between

stakeholders;

- Reducing the length of inputs, and having speakers present from the floor rather

than from the podium on the stage, in order to create a greater sense of equality

and inclusion between speakers and stakeholders and to create more time for

stakeholders to discuss issues.

At the end of the day stakeholders were asked for their feedback on the changes to the

process. See feedback comments in Appendix 7.

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger

A series of short inputs were given by:

- Aidan Fitzpatrick, Deputy Director, Policy Unit, Development Co-operation and Africa Directorate, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade;

- Aoibheann O’Brien, CEO Foodcloud;

- Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights;

- Judith Hitchmann, President of Urgenci International (The International Network of Community Supported Agriculture).

Following the inputs discussions took place at the tables on the following questions:

1. What’s is your interest in SDG 2?

2. From your perspective/experience what are the current challenges, in relation to

SDG 2, you are noticing or encountering?

3. In the context of SDG 2 how is my personal diet helping or hindering the

achievement of SDG 2?

4. Name, maximum 5, challenges and choosing one what would you do to address them?

Output from the table discussions in relation to question 4 are detailed in Appendix 3. Stakeholders reported back using Slido and Flip charts.

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2. SDG 17 Partnership for the Goals: business

A series of sort inputs were given by:

- James Kiernan, Director of Relationship Management, Chambers Ireland

- Thomás, Sercovich, CEO, Business in the Community

- Karen O’Donohue, Grow Circle

Each speaker addressed the following questions:

1. Where are businesses in relation to SDGs at in your opinion? 2. What is your organisation doing and how do you connect with the SDGs? 3. What lessons have you learned so far?

Stakeholders were asked to

consider the following question

and feedback via Slido – see

Appendix 4:

- What are the blind spots and challenges to be considered/worked at in helping businesses to get on board?

- What might be a good way to address these / what help is needed?

- In one word what do you think the focus needs to be?

3. Keynote address by Minister at the Department of Agriculture, food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD

Minister Michael Creed TD gave the keynote address (see Appendix 5) and followed by

responding to questions from stakeholders.

4. Next National Implementation Plan

Joe Gallagher, Environment Policy, Sustainable Development Goals, DCCAE gave a short

input on the Department’s current thinking on the process for developing the next National

SDG Implementation Plan and covered the following points:

- Next Implementation Plan will cover the period 2021 -2023;

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- The planning process will be completed in 2020 and the Plan published in Quarter 4

2020;

- There will be a whole of Government Plan – involve all Government departments;

- In early 2020 a calendar will be published of all stakeholder engagement

opportunities during 2020;

- Each Department is planning to host a policy input opportunity for stakeholder to

input into the relevant SDGs via a Policy Fora;

- A further input opportunity will be through, up to 4, Regional Stakeholder Forum

events with consideration being given about whether or not the Forums should focus

on specific SDG goals separately or cluster the SDGs in thematic areas.

Participants, working in groups, addressed the following questions:

- What do you think of the proposed process?

- What are your thoughts about what it should look like?

• Main phases and features of the process.

• Who should be involved?

• How should they be reached?

Groups, presented their reports – See Appendix 6.

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Appendix 1: SDG Stakeholder Forum 18th December Agenda

National SDG Stakeholder Forum

AGENDA

18 December 2019

Dublin Castle, Main Conference Centre

9.45 Welcome and outline of the day.

10.00 Panel Discussion – SDG2 Zero Hunger

Aidan Fitzpatrick, Deputy Director, Policy Unit, Development Co-

operation and Africa Directorate, Department of Foreign Affairs

Aoibheann O’Brien, CEO Foodcloud

Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme

Poverty and Human Rights

Judith Hitchmann, President Urgenci International

11.30 Tea/Coffee – Networking

11.45 SDGs & Business – Partnerships for the Goals

James Kiernan, Relationship Manager, Chambers Ireland

Thomás Sercovich, CEO, Business in the Community

Karen O’Donohue, Grow Circle

13:00 Lunch and Networking

14.15 Key Note Address by Minister at the Department of Agriculture,

Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D.

15.00 Breakout Sessions:

Next National Implementation Plan – Outline of Stakeholder

Consultation Process

16.45 Wrap-up and conclusion

Next meeting 22nd February- Dublin Castle

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Appendix 2: Attendees at the Forum

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Appendix 3: Table discussions on SDG 2 – Zero Hunger

Stakeholders reported on two aspects of their discussions at the tables:

1. Name up to, maximum, 5 challenges

2. Taking one of the challenges work out in more detail suggestions for how to address

it, and report on a sheet of Flipchart paper – one from each table.

Education and awareness

Challenges Solutions

Better Education

Making people aware of data available –

how are we doing so far?

Education and training

Accessibility: layered;

awareness/education; physical; social

boundaries

Awareness and education

Lack of education, awareness and

ambition among our elected officials

both national and local and among

media

Human greed. There is some increase in

awareness of sustainability issues but

more needs to be done to raise

awareness.

More awareness of the SDG data

Platform

Awareness raising in schools

Empowering community and local

solutions

Empowering individual voice and

change – utilising social media to

mobilise

Teaching and encouraging critical

thinking and dialogue

Incorporate into school curriculum

Build awareness through marketing;

government campaigns; raise

awareness of food waste and SDGs

among policy makers; regulate

companies marketing, targeting the

consumption of junk food

Regulation around marketing of

unsustainable food/ food habits

Education and training at local, regional

and national level.

Integration and coherence of policy


Policy Coherence

Policy coherence – lack of at national and

global levels.

Policy incoherence and silo thinking.

Need to work differently - inter-

connected. Where is the leadership

Policy alignment for collaborative

connectivity

Integration and prioritisation at the

highest level i.e. Dept of An Taoiseach

Link SDGs to the Constitution? Dept of

Public Expenditure and Reform to set as

a condition in public procurement?

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Government’s role and policy


Government role and accountability

Lack of an integrated, cohesive,

authentic, sustainable, food and

agricultural policy and implementation

plan.

Land use


Land use / management

Soil and land use

CAP payments linked to environmental

sustainability

Government policy on soil health and

land use

Farm responsibility – viable small farms

Enforcement/regulation

Set National and Regional targets

Native Forests regeneration

Food production, marketing and consumption


Disconnect from Food journey

The invitation to consume

Lack of local resources and capacity to fix

broken food system

Cost/quality drives behaviour

Disproportionate availability of health,

nutritious, and delicious food

Decline of horticulture and limited

ambition for small producers – zero

framework for markets in town planning

Sustainable agriculture/ ecological

farming methods more mainstream

Disconnect form ‘farm to fork’ journey

Below cost selling – fair price for food

Confusion around ‘best before’ and ‘sell

by’ dates

Transparency and disclosure around food

waste

Big food

Cut out food waste: incentivise

Set ambitious targets for food waste

Creating sustainable food systems

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businesses to link to charities

Access to markets

Soil health and land use

Prioritising nutritional foods

Tackling food waste

Systemic causes of food insecurity

Fishing


Over fishing by Irish trawlers – (five

super trawlers)

Fisheries – need more attention in the

discussion on SDG2

Climate


Climate change

Climate change – greenhouse gas

emissions.

Climate change

Climate action

Shift the global and national economic

focus from growth to redistribution

Changing behaviours and attitudes


Incentivising change

Change behaviours through policy,

implementation, education and

communication

Adequate income

Individual – cost, incentive, transport,

information

Behavioural change – how do we

enable? Economics/reality?

Education on what is good nutrition and

its links to positive mental health

Funding and political societal shifts (e.g.

UK –DFID)

SDGs


Lack of incentives and continued barriers

to prioritising SDGs

Challenge of variations/priorities in

driving the communications across -

government departments; SDGs.

Vital need for meaningful coordination

of work and messaging – locally,

nationally, and globally (EU)

Exposure on SDGs as cross cutting

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Overlapping SDGs

Other


Not listening to indigenous knowledge

Accountability and purpose to ensure

delivery

Businesses are committed to SDGs but

with inadequate coordination that

energy will be wasted and business

cannot sustain that waste of energy.

Competing with private sector –

advertising and legislation

Upcoming challenges with global

community – insecurity in support and

restrictions on aid responses

Bringing voices to the table (smallholder

farmers)

Lobbying and advocacy

National Implementation Plan

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Appendix 4: SDG 17 Partnership for the Goals: Business

Stakeholders reported on three aspects of their discussions at the tables:

1) What are the blind spots and challenges to be considered by the business community in relation to the achievement of the SDGs? Feedback using Slido.

- There is difference between sustainability of a company and sustainable

development. What happens when the two collide..?

- CSR is effectively a marketing tool rather than a strategic aim of the company

- CSR seen as a charity rather than a programmatic output of the company

- Is there a role for business to provide data to the Voluntary National Review on

SDGs?

- Talk and understanding isn’t doing

- Do businesses see the opportunities in this area? Is this a blindspot? Are they

sufficiently aware/educated?

- There are no fora/ places for businesses to come to learn about SDGs and work

collaboratively on them.

- Shareholder short term vision

- Turnover, profit and shareholder value are the bottom lines which mitigate against

sustainable development

- Lack of understanding?

- One of the challenges is for NGOs to rid ourselves of the blind spot/ assumptions we

have about businesses and their desire to participate in the SDGs.

2) What might be a good way to address these, or what help is needed? Feedback using Slido.

Education

- Provide education for politicians, media & business - talk to Irish Development

Education Association and their members about what works and is educationally

sound. Do not assume awareness raising is the same as education and/or will lead to

positive change!

- Chambers of Commerce need to educate themselves on other business models and

then be available to support more equitable business models, such as co-operatives/

social enterprises, etc.

- Train the economists in the SDG’s

Buy-in and engagement

- Senior management buy-in and employee engagement are crucial. Empower them

with the knowledge and skills needed to act for Sustainable Development through

Global Citizenship Education

- Global Citizenship Education for employees engagement

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- Educate young graduates who will then bring this knowledge to the organisations

Change focus of current business and economic models

- End GDP as the indicator for measuring progress and replace with more balanced

social and sustainable indicators

- Natural Capital Accounting must be included in business and policy development

- Focus on degrowth. The current economic model is bankrupt

- 'Profit' should not just refer to monetary gain - it should be redefined

- Question the idea of companies having to have continued growth and increased

profits

- SROI Social Return on Investment broaden “the bottom line” to a the quadruple

bottom line

- How do we redefine success so it's not always about making the most money?

- Businesses need to be introduced to different business models such as co-

operatives, social solidarity business models. Local Enterprise Offices are unaware of

these models, which are more equitable than private ownership/ business models

for the 1%.

Government’s role and policy

- We need Government to think long term. Really long term and impose the will of our

young climate activists

- Government accept and respond to 'the science'

- Fish quota anyone?

- Policy Coherence & a framework for monitoring & evaluating private sector activities

- a rating system to prevent greenwashing & encouraging positive behaviour

- Policy as a way to enforce/force the aims above and beyond bottom line

- Stop subsidising fossil fuel industry

- Government needs to create framework legislation to support a more equitable

economic system, such as small scale food processing, co-operatively owned

businesses, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). 6 other countries have already

implemented this type of legislation, supporting equitable ownership of businesses.

Other:

- We need more promotion of what is actually happening; it's not been shared or

talked about enough.

- We need to joined-up thinking & solutions. Action-focused thinking. We need more

access to support and networking at local levels

- Ensuring workers have decent pay and decent jobs.

3) In ONE word, where do you think the focus should be?

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Appendix 5: Keynote address by Minister at the Department of Agriculture, food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and identified seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the plan for action to end poverty, protect the planet’s biosphere and ensure prosperity for all. It is a magnificent and transformative agenda that should guide our actions across a vast range of our endeavours.

The SDGs provide us with a blueprint for a safer, fairer, more prosperous and sustainable world by 2030. They universally apply to all nations, encouraging them to mobilise efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind. Ireland’s mobilisation is outlined in the National Implementation Plan 2018-2020. The plan sets out our vision of how we will fully implement the SDGs at home and contribute to their achievement globally. It also underlines our commitment under the SDGs to leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first as we have promised in our new international development strategy A Better World.

Ireland has adopted a whole-of-government approach to implementing the SDGs, with clear roles for every Government Department and overall political oversight provided through the Cabinet. In this regard my Department, along with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish Aid, has responsibility for SDG 2 Zero Hunger, the theme for today’s National SDG Forum. The objectives of SDG 2 are to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and to promote sustainable agriculture. When we talk about SDG 2 Zero Hunger, we automatically think of it in terms of the developing world. However, it is also important to recognise that it has real relevance in our own country. The targets on access to safe, nutritious food are key issues for my Department.

My Department, in partnership with the Departments of Children and Youth Affairs; and Education and Skills and the National Dairy Council are currently developing a bespoke model for the extension of the School Milk Scheme to Early Learning and Care settings. A pilot of this bespoke scheme will be rolled out to twelve settings across Kilkenny and Carlow in February and March 2020. Educational resources specifically developed for the pilot will be provided to each setting, as well as free milk on a daily basis for each participating child.

As part of Budget 2020, funding has been secured to pilot a meals programme, also in Early Learning and Care settings. The pilot will run in a sample of locations and will operate for the full duration of the 38-week 2020/2021 programme year. A range of meals options including hot meals will be piloted, and following the conclusion of the pilot and evaluation,

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consideration will be given to extending this meals programme to a larger number of Early Learning and Care settings and on a more a permanent basis. In a global context Ireland has a long record of leadership on development issues. We have contributed to development policies and targets at the UN, and with our partner countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. We have a proud record of providing un-earmarked Official Development Assistance and continue to grow that contribution. In addition, our leadership on issues of hunger and poverty at a global level reflect our background as a people, and our commitment to ensure that the very poorest and marginalised on this planet can experience the fruits and opportunities of development, much as we have as a nation over the past century and a half. My Department is honoured to have represented Ireland over the last two-years on the UN World Food Programme Executive Board. This time last year I signed a new three-year Strategic Partnership Agreement with the World Food Programme running from 2019-2021. This partnership agreement commits funding in the amount of €70m from my Department to the World Food Programme as a contribution towards their work in achieving SDG Two Zero Hunger.

Agriculture is the backbone of food security and rural livelihoods. It is this context that I am pleased that my Department, in addition to providing payment of Ireland’s annual subscription to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), regularly provides additional voluntary support to specific worthwhile projects.

In 2018 Ireland provided extra funding in the amount of €2.8m for the strengthening of food security and nutrition of vulnerable populations; projects to support climate smart agriculture and international food safety standards; as well as farmer training for the response to and management of catastrophic Fall Army Worm infestations.

When it comes to our relationship with developing countries, the Sustainable Development Goals have moved beyond the notion that donor aid should drive agricultural improvement. Instead, the emphasis is now firmly on Agriculture policy, as distinct and complementary to development from donor aid. As then EU President Junker noted “Africa does not need charity, it needs true and fair partnership. And we Europeans need this partnership just as much.”

In this regard, my officials work closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on a jointly funded Africa Agri-Food Development Programme, also known as the AADP. The AADP was launched seven years ago to establish partnerships between the agri-food companies in Ireland and Africa. This Programme and wider engagement with Africa is something to which the Irish Government is committed for a number of reasons.

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Sustainable growth of the local food industry, building markets for local produce and support mutually beneficial trade between Ireland and Africa are key aspects of our interactions. The AADP has so far developed eighteen such collaborations, for example, the development of a coffee bean processing cooperative in Ethiopia and agriculture value chains in pig production in Uganda; the introduction of highly nutritious fodder varieties that increases cow productivity in Kenya; and the establishment of a facility in Malawi for the production of ready to use therapeutic foods.

Ireland serves as a very good example of best practice in sustainable food systems for developing countries evolving from post-colonial small scale subsistence farming to an exporter of high quality, safe and sustainable food. Leveraging our food system expertise, my Department has also hosted and co-funded workshops in Dublin and Kigali, Rwanda on sustainable food systems development in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Following the launch of the Task Force on Rural Africa report, my Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have agreed to develop a national response to the recommendations of the Task Force report. The plan is to have for the first time, a shared approach, by all relevant stakeholders, to advancing rural development and food systems transformation across the African continent.

FAO recently reported that world hunger has been on the rise since 2015 and is now back to levels seen in 2010-2011. More than 800 million people in the world were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2018. This underscores the immense challenge of achieving the SDG 2 Zero Hunger target by 2030.

Ireland’s international support to food security in a climate change context is directed towards smallholders in general, and women smallholders in particular, with our policies built on the guidelines agreed on by the Committee on World Food Security. The purpose of the support is to increase productivity, build resilience and strengthen the smallholders' ability to influence decisions that have a direct impact on their lives.

All countries are being affected by a changing climate. But it is the world’s poorest people who are bearing the heaviest burden - from rising seas and more intense droughts, shortages of water and food. It is inevitable that we will be seeing climate change refugees sooner rather than later and is therefore imperative that we address hunger, poverty and climate change.

Within Ireland the importance of addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been reflected in the recent all of Government Climate Action Plan 2019. The agricultural sector will play its part in the transition to a low carbon, climate resilient economy and society of the future. In this regard my Department is currently engaged in a Climate Action Consultation for Agriculture - “Ag-Climatise”, a National Climate & Air Roadmap for the Agriculture Sector to 2030 and Beyond. The consultation will end on Friday

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10 January 2020 and I would encourage all stakeholders to participate if they have not already done so. Similarly, the public consultation on Ireland’s next Agri-Food Strategy to 2030 recently concluded. It one of a series of consultations as part of my Department’s approach to inclusive policy development. Each successive agri-food strategy has attached greater importance to environmental sustainability. In alignment with the agreed actions in respect of new policy strategies as outlined in the SDG National Implementation Plan, the new Agri-Food strategy will be developed within the framework of the SDGs.

SDG 2 establishes a clear linkage between ending hunger and malnutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. 500 million small farms worldwide, most still rainfed, provide up to 80 per cent of food consumed in a large part of the developing world. Investing in smallholder women and men and recognising the rural poor as agents of change, is an important way to increase food security and nutrition for the poorest, as well as food production for local and global markets. With the global population set to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and nearly 11 billion around 2100, the world needs to produce more and better food. However, increased agricultural production and productivity, if not sustainable, can result in deforestation and land degradation, jeopardizing long-term food security. Our vision should be for a world in which consumption and production patterns and use of all natural resources — from air to land, from rivers, lakes and aquifers to oceans and seas — are sustainable. Whereas a careful balance is needed between achieving food for all and conserving and restoring ecosystems there is nonetheless no excuse, in the 21st Century, with our wealth and our technology that anyone should have to experience systematic hunger.

The SDGs are the right response to the great challenges of our time. Turning these goals and targets into substantive change is not easy and, accordingly, we must demonstrate increased commitment and ambition in order to realise them.

In the musical Hamilton the lead character, in pondering the question of what is a legacy, as he prepared to engage in a duel, answered “It is planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.”

Sustainable development is grounded in the concept of fairness between generations. In order to consider their needs, we must look upon the decisions we take today through the eyes of future generations. This means that the needs of present generations are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.

Let this generation’s successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG Number Two: Zero Hunger, be our legacy to future generations.

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Appendix 6: Next National Implementation Plan

Feedback from stakeholders on the following questions:

- What do you think of the proposed process?

- What are your thoughts about what it should look like?

• Main phases and features of the process.

• Who should be involved?

• How should they be reached?

Overall themes to emerge from the feedback.

- Important to proactively engage a broad range of stakeholders in order to reflect the

range and diversity of stakeholders. A proactive engagement of stakeholders will

also be important in building commitment to the Implementation Plan. Also

important to proactively reach out to stakeholders who are ‘hard to reach’ or may

not have the opportunity engage with a stakeholder consultation process.

- Build awareness of the consultation process through public awareness and media

campaign

- Take a thematic approach rather than individual SDGs in order to reflect the

interconnected nature of the SDGs

- Be really clear about the details of the consultation process. Publish a process map

for the consultation and drafting process so that it is clear what opportunities

stakeholders will have to input and commenting on drafts and also the integration of

a thematic approach and whole of government approach is evident.

- Provide opportunities for stakeholders to comment on drafts of the Implementation

Plan rather than just have a once off opportunity to input content.

Group 1 – key suggestions

1. 9 month time frame to complete the process is too short

2. Engaging Stakeholders: coops/credit unions; landworkers alliance; science;

financial/donors; chambers of commerce; faith groups; minority groups; disability

groups; long-term unemployed; asylum seekers and refugees; county councils; youth

groups; NGOs; CSO; Business; farming; trade unions; arts culture heritage;

academia/teachers/students/researchers; Travellers.

3. Features of the process: take a thematic approach rather than treating each SDG

separately; have a regional aspect rather than being Dublin centric; ensure there is a

balance of voice and input; involve the SDG champions; importance of

interdepartmental work; policy coherence; publish a consultation map and dates - a

timeline of all public consultations and include intersections where different SDG,

themes and Departments will interact with each other in order to ensure integration

and coherence; align with High Level Political Forum process in 2020 of presenting

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national voluntary reviews; provide for constant feedback and opportunities to

comment on drafts of the plan.

4. Process: town hall meetings; engage existing processes e.g. Public Participation

Networks; develop a national media plan to use national and local media to raise

awareness of the planning process and the opportunity to contribute; make the

existing Stakeholder Forum more accessible by live streaming it

Group 2 - key suggestions

1. Engaging Stakeholders: Communities, trade unions, businesses, education, NGOs.

2. Theme the SDGs around poverty which would encompass health, housing, decent

work, education, climate justice, and specific groups, including, women and children,

people on low income, farmers and fishermen.

3. Approach to developing the plan: build on what has been successful in the current

implementation plan; geographically extend the process beyond Dublin to the

regions; engage multiple sectors; each Department to host policy meetings with

their stakeholders; use an implementation approach, post planning, which tests

models of implementation, distinguishing between big, medium and small initiatives,

in order to learn about scaling implementation.


1 Take a thematic approach rather than treating SDGs separately. Use a systems

transformation model, published in Sustainable Development Report 2019 by the

Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and theme the issues accordingly:

Theme Responsible Dept

1. Education, inequality, gender Education, Science and Technology,

Social Affairs

2. Health Health

3. Energy decarbonisation Buildings, construction, energy,

environment, transport

4. Sustainable land use, water, oceans Agriculture, forestry, environment,

marine

5. Sustainable cities Transport, urban development

6. Digital revolution Science and technology,

Communications.

2 Engaging Stakeholders: media; academics; businesses; farmers; marginalised

groups – need to be actively recruited; members of interdepartmental working

groups; local authorities – county chairs, CEOs; LEOs; Climate Action Regional

Offices; Tidy Towns groups; GAA; ICA

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3 Involve the National Stakeholder Forum and regional forums in an interactive

process of generating content for the Implementation Plan and giving feedback

on drafts of the plan before it is finalised.


1 Use an interconnected approach rather than treating each SDG separately.

2 Use a three phased approach

a. Review, research, think/reflect

i. Review the content of the 2018 – 2020 Implementation Plan and

identify areas where there has been good and weak progress in

achieving the commitments

ii. Review the process of generating and implementing the 2018 and

2020 Implementation

iii. Engaging Stakeholders: use a variety of formats at events to engage

stakeholders: e.g. World Cafés; raise awareness of the process in

order to get engagement; have a regional focus: undertake a regional

analysis of e.g. regional incomes and livelihoods; and host regional

roadshows; use a Citizen’s Assemble approach to engage citizens, and

youth.

b. Identify key themes and issues

c. Identify specific goal and initiatives to achieve the goals

3 Identify a number of values which will underpin the planning process: inclusive,

empowering, critical thinking; resilience; mindful; diverse.


1. Adopt a whole of government approach so as to ensure an integrated approach to

drafting the next Implementation Plan.

2. Use a thematic approach rather than working on each SDG separately and in

isolation of the others

3. Raise the profile of the consultation process so that there is a greater level of

awareness of the consultation process for generating the next Implementation Plan.

Take a phased approach: Start with an awareness campaign. Use St Patrick’s Day to

launch and made the association between the numbers - March 17th and the 17

SDGs; Middle - generate wide ranging discussions and debate about the content of

the next implementation plan; Finish with a launch event to raise the profile among

the public about the SDGs and the value of next Implementation Plan.

4. Proactively reach out to engage multiple stakeholders especially those that are

considered hard to reach and use existing networks to access these stakeholders e.g.

Public Participation Networks.

5. Develop an Implementation Plan which is co-owned by all stakeholders rather than

just the DCCAE and incorporate a whole of government approach to

implementation.

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1. Undertake a stakeholder analysis to identify the broad range of stakeholders who

need to be engaged with the process and which would include: all government

departments; academics; local government; state agencies; civil society – NGOs,

charities; farmers and fishermen; education system – boards, school children;

industry; SMEs

2. Proactively engage stakeholders through a structured outreach programme.

3. Undertake the following process:

a. Under take a first round of consultation with a select group of stakeholders

by establishing an Inner Circle for expertise and insight consisting of -

government departments; local government; academia; civil society

representatives; education; IFA; BIM; marginalised community

representatives; other countries, state agencies; MNCs; innovators and

industry; SMEs. Consult this ‘inner circle’ on the first draft. Carefully identify

who needs to be on the Inner Circle, actively recruit them by invitation; and

hold 4 meetings – one in each province.

b. Having completed a first draft, drawing on the expertise and insight of the

Inner Circle conduct a second round of consultation with all stakeholders

through online and local meetings.

Feedback via Slido

Raise awareness of the SDG and the stakeholder consultation for the next National

Implementation Plan

- Great awareness in schools similar to green school - sdg school

- National date for SDG - discussion in Dail, short presentation for every school to

display on whiteboard at the same time

- More media coverage. National and local.

- Visibility - discussion or debate in Dáil, big event around for example ST Patrick’s day

(17 for 17)

Proactively reach out to and engage stakeholders

- Use champions who have people in every community

- Regional fora might not be inclusive enough. Start at the community level. PPNs.

Dynamic outreach. Maybe link in with media like Nationwide on RTÉ, children’s

television programmes etc for awareness raising and to make sdgs part of daily life

- Involve the SDG champions - use them for awareness raising

- Leverage the methodology for outreach that was so successful in The Gathering

- Use the network of schools and the GAA to reach children and young people

- Dynamic outreach to reach the furthest behind - meetings in for example universities

might suppress attendance by most vulnerable in society

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- Leverage the PPNs and county councils and work up to the regional fora rather than

down

- Consultation with children and young people

- Need to overtly partner with grassroots organizations to ensure no one is left behind

and that hard to reach groups have a voice in the process

- Can civil society/Coalition 2030 be engaged to undertake elements of the

consultation and produce a shadow plan in collaboration with government?

- Multi method / multi-faceted consultation process important; -( broad and deep) -

incl. on line, face-to face, regional meetings, focus groups with furthest behind

- Who else should be involved in consultation process ?

Features of the planning process

- Need for clear start - middle - end.

- Have a Big Bang kickoff awareness campaign. SDGs should be top of mind for

everyone in the country

- Waiting for review

- Should involve taking stock and building on existing implementation

- A framework & timeline 3months to feed back

- A focus on Interconnectedness of SDG's

- An online hub for stakeholders to make online comments & submissions & an online

forum for discussions on the SDGs topics

- Plan back from targets (data) through specific actions aligned directly to

departments/stakeholders - seeking increased accountability

- Whole systems thinking should be used for the consultation. Based on Six

Transformations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals - published in

Nature Sustainability, Aug 2019

- Nine months is very short. Is it a realistic timeline ?

- Use world cafe for community consultation

- Can the consultations be based on concrete evidence (Geohive data) as well as clear

outline of what is being done and where there are constraints?

- Frame consultation at start with a range of exploratory questions

- It would be useful to produce data/evidence on success/challenges of existing plan

in order to inform next plan.

Thematic or interconnected approach to the SDGs

- Thematic approach would be best rather than looking at each individual SDG.

- How will next plan and it’s formulation reflect inter-connectivity of SDGs to avoid

silos and narrow conclusions?

- Cross-departmental collaboration on the themes of the SDGs should be occurring.

Having a silo-based approach creates too many opportunities for overlap/ conflicting

strategies.

- Thematic process as SDGs are so linked. More younger people than I see here

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- Thematic region all meeting in Community halls. a good marketing strategy is

essential

- Prefer discussing all goals rather than in silos, because silos won't capture all

connections

- Leverage the biosphere - social - economic themes to ensure cohesion

Government’s role and structures

- Cabinet subcommittee on the sdgs

- All government departments to play an active leading role on their targets and

themes

- Stockholm Environmental Institute SEI Tool for policy coherence

Scale of ambition

- The SDGs provide an opportunity for us to create a better world for everyone, so

government should be taking this opportunity to look at redesigning everything in

society to improve things holistically

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Appendix 7: Feedback from Stakeholders

Stakeholders gave the following feedback on their experience of the process of the day:

layout of the room, balance between speaker inputs and discussions among stakeholders.

There were 24 response to these questions. The low number of respondents is likely to be due to the fact that the questions were asked at the end of the day when people were getting ready to leave the event.

2. What do you think were the positive aspects of the event today that we can carry forward

to our next event?

- Collaboration aspect was great. Great speakers.

- Definitely the round table format rather than theatre style, which is much more

conducive to conversation. Also, including breakout discussion in the morning

session was much better than simple ‘presentation/panel’ format.

- More interaction, dialogue

- Collaborative and interactive approach, Expert inputters participated, Minister

engaged positively

- Warmth of participants and their engagement. Diverse range of participants and

sectors.

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- Cafe cabaret style, Graphic harvesting, excellent facilitation, Great to have speakers

as part of the groups, all excellent, you did a really great job, It was such a positive

day, THANK YOU!!!!!

- Round table format, Minister taking questions, Short inputs

- It was very well run. The table format was great. Much more interactive than theatre

style.

- The roundtable layout allowed for more engagement among stakeholders. Also the

speakers sitting at tables was also good.

- Getting to provide genuine input to the conversation, rather than sitting in an

audience and being "talked at". Today - unusually - was a great opportunity to

actually participate in shaping the conversation on SDGs. Well done on a great

format!

- The active participation was positive as was the stimulation from speakers.

- Round table format Group discussion with questions provided?

- The round table forum and the facilitation was incredible. Very very well done. It was

a great way to ensure people really engaged with each other. The commitment to no

food waste was excellent too.

- Liked the Round table format and something similar should be utilized again.

- Better format.

- Conversations

- Good variety of speakers. Good balance of discussion and question times

- The afternoon session

- Excellent interaction, people listening and communicating effectively

- More interaction all day.

- Discussions

- Collaboration interactive

- Discussions and networking

- Great networking and knowledge sharing

- Comments 3. Was there anything missing from the event that you would like to see at our next event?

Types of participants attending

- Younger citizens.

- Young people

- More people.

- Better balance of attending sectors. More space to intersect with gov. Officials/

ministers

- At least one 14-18 year old at each table

- Fund people to come that are relevant. Train them how to partner

- . What was missing: representatives from marginalised groups, such as travelling

community, refugees, homeless people, etc.

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Focus/content of the Forum events

- Missing a focus on implementation ’re Zero Hunger Goal. Something to still strength

in Forum approach.

- Engaging with wider people on all goals. Ensuring that people don't just attend

forums that are focusing on goals that directly concern them. There is a need to

highlight that all goals are interlinked and impact on each other.

- Need to find a way of assessing implementation of Goals

- More Specialised speakers bringing specific change to their own area.

- Keep moving towards greater participation by all

- Summarise this session and then build on it e.g. remind us who SDG Champions are.

- NIP process sounds good. Let's get on with it. Maybe group ministries to focus on

links across policy areas/sdgs

- Today's format was great, would be great to hear what other countries are doing.

Administration of Forum events

- Organic locally produced food!

- Local food to really ties in the overarching discussion process with the on the group

work

- Eventbrite as the registration process -

list of participants Available for everyone

Process suggestions

- Continue to include discussion during the morning session. Avoid long presentations.

- Keep the roundtable. Think it is important to mix up the tables with attendees from

different sectors also

- Café / more movement between tables

- Maybe engineer the tables a bit with set seating to encourage a more focused

discussion and use the IDWG as facilitators. Use name badges with big print instead

of dangling name tags in lanyards that no one can see. World cafe for some

discussions.

- Please make the slido content available. Keep the format participatory use diverse

facilitation techniques. Check out The Art of hosting for examples on how to create

participatory meetings. Bring a graphic facilitation expert in to capture the voices of

the day.

Government officials’ participation

- We need Government working group reps at the table and not at the back of the

room. Eye level discussions are needed for a real partnership.

- A better chance for officials to hear and read views

Simplify the complexity of the content

- Hard to capture all the ideas. Sometimes overall concept seems overwhelming due

to size of SDGs

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Location and length of Forum events

- Not so much content or format but let's hold the forum at least once outside Dublin

in 2020

- Finishing at 5pm seems to mean that we end up with a much smaller number and

therefore a less dynamic or representative group which is unfortunate.

Publicity

- Would like to see publicity around the forum, see it mentioned on social media

outlets and shared by key organisations, so the word gets out to people adequately

More of the same type of process

- No. The same again would be great!

- None that I can think of.

- No, well done..... lots of hard work organising this event very evident

- Round table was an excellent format

- More of the same please - a huge step forward

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