9 - 10 April 2008, Berlin, Germany
The 2nd ESDN Workshop was hosted by the ESDN in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) & German Federal Environment Agency (UBA). The workshop was entitled "Experiences with Participatory Tools and Mechanisms" and took place on 9-10 April 2008 in Berlin, Germany.
Whenever the governance of sustainable development (SD) is under discussion, the quest for involving different stakeholder groups (e.g. civil society organisations, business representatives, academia, sub-national levels, etc) in policy-making is imminent. According to Agenda 21, SD strategies should build on trustful partnerships and “the widest possible participation”. The rationale behind this quest is diverse, and so are the types and degrees of participation. One can distinguish between several types of participation: ad-hoc forms like internet consultations, workshops, round tables and dialogues, and institutionalised forms like committees, advisory groups and National Councils of Sustainable Development (NCSDs). Most of these types differ in terms of breadth of participation (involvement of all stakeholder groups or a selected few) and degrees of participation (informative, consultative and decisional). The main purpose of the workshop is to exchange information and experiences in applying different participatory processes and mechanisms.