SAN VIRTUAL FORUM

On May 7, 2020, the Stakeholder Advisory Network on Climate Finance (SAN) kicked off its first-ever SAN Virtual Forum, a five-part interactive series of 90-minute sessions, to inform and engage members and other stakeholders on the status and outputs of the SAN’s five Working Groups, launched in October 2019. The first webinar’s, “Lightning Talks” gave an overview of the groups’ work to-date, covering governance & elections, membership, fundraising, products & services, and legal arrangements. Some 40 participants, comprised of SAN members, civil society organizations, and representatives of climate funds and donor governments attended.

Moderator, Margaret-Ann Splawn, Executive Director of Climate Markets and Investment Association who is also an observer of the CIF, a former observer of the Forestry Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF), explained how the SAN is building a framework and guidelines to support observers to improve their working skills, and serve their constituencies, including the climate and environmental funds they advise in order to improve governance systems and finance effectiveness.

Output from the SAN’s five working groups was presented by steering committee members and two coordinators, followed by a group discussion. 

Highlights (read full summary):

• The story of the SAN was told, from its launch at the Paris Agreement to its mandate of transparency, accountability and cooperation to its current set up as a fully independent and operational entity, with a solidified governance structure and proposed line of products and services;
• A talk on SAN’s proposed legal arrangements highlighted the short, medium and long-term options for housing the SAN that includes an MoU with an NGO that requires further consideration by the SAN membership. The subject of by-laws was also taken up;
• SAN’s Governance & Coordinating Committee (CC) election group introduced the election process note that includes a three-step approach to building consensus, the election process itself, and the composition of the CC from across the Funds, with representatives from six CSOs, three IPs, two private sector groups, and one southern NGO (The Election Process was launched on June 3);
• The Membership Working Group would like to know more about you! Are you an active member? What do you think the value addition of SAN membership is? Comments from a pre-webinar poll found transparency, learning, sharing, collaboration, capacity building, indigenous peoples’ organizations, monitoring, among others to be important aspects of membership. The SAN’s first-ever full membership questionnaire will be distributed in mid- June. 
• SAN’s Resource Mobilization talk included, “Where We’ve Been”, “the Value Proposition”, and the SAN as a “Think & Do Tank”. The SAN is very grateful for CIF’s continued support. The SAN must diversify its funding sources however, to cover operating costs and become an independent entity. Fund secretariats and government donors of CIF are engaged but would like to see proof of concept. The SAN brings transparency and accountability to the donors and stakeholder engagement reduces risk, leading to more effective projects, and greater impact on the ground. 
• SAN’s proposed “line of action”, seeks to address setting standards, capacity building, and disseminating knowledge and information. This is how you put the SAN into action, demonstrating its capacity to address the issues it was created to resolve. A full portfolio of products and services to serve the SAN mission, its membership and other stakeholders was unveiled. 

Two more webinars are scheduled in June to round up our SAN virtual forum. Webinar 4 will center on SAN Legal Arrangements and Membership Value Addition. Webinar 5 will be a round-up of what we’ve learned from our webinar discussions with members and other stakeholders, important linkages among the five working groups’ outputs, and listening to stakeholder views on the SAN’s future activities.