The Reformed Financial Mechanism of the UNFCCC: Renegotiating the role of civil society in the governance of climate change.
To what extent have existing institutions for climate change finance succeeded in bringing the voices of poor and disadvantaged sections of civil society to the decision-making table? This paper by Anju Sharma analyses the models for civil society engagement adopted by the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds. It finds that both do little more than provide an occasional venue for a poorly defined entity called ‘global civil society’ to voice concerns, where interactions are limited to one-off events rather than a continuous and integrated process of mutually beneficial engagement. The paper calls on civil society to use the strengths and legitimacy they bring to the process to renegotiate the terms of their engagement, calling particularly for a more ‘bottom-up’ process for bringing local voices to the fore; resources for sustaining and improving the quality of civil society engagement; and formalised processes of mutual accountability.
