Background
A key limitation of the UN climate change negotiations is the lack of a level playing field between delegations, both North-South, and South-South. Another major obstacle lies in mutual misunderstanding and a lack of trust, particularly between industrialised and developing countries.
The European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi) was launched in 2005 to overcome these limitations and obstacles through a number of capacity and trust building activities. The Initiative has three main areas of work:
- A trust-building Oxford Fellowship Programme to promote an informal (high level) exchange of views and ideas, led by Oxford Climate Policy.
- A Training & Support Programme to enhance negotiating skills, particularly of new negotiators, led by the International Institute for Environment and Development.
- A Publications & Policy Ananlysis Unit, to support the two Programmes with the provision of information and advice.
Management
Internal Management
The day to day running of the Initiative is managed by an Executive Committee, with the following members:
- Achala Chandani Abeysinghe, International Institute for Environment and Development, London, UK.
- Benito Müller, Oxford Climate Policy, Oxford, UK.
- Anju Sharma, Oxford Climate Policy, Oxford, UK.
- Christoph Schwarte, Legal Response International, London, UK.
External Management
Strategic guidance and quality control is provided from outside the ecbi Membership by the participating government Partners. Strategic guidance for the content of the Initiative is given by an Advisory Committee, with the following Members:
Developing Country Members
- Co-Chair Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu (Democratic Republic of Congo)
- Pa Ousman Jarju (Honorary Member)
- Mohamed Nasr (Egypt), ex-officio (Africa Group Chair)
- Gebru Jember (Ethiopia) ex-officio (LDC Group Chair)
- Stella Gama (Malawi)
Developed Country Members
- Co-Chair Jan Cedergren (Sweden)
- Bo Kjellén (Honorary Member)
- Axel Olearius (GIZ)
- Saleemul Huq (IIED)
- Alexander Fisher (IKI)
- Linda Siegele (LRI)
Centrally Managed Activities
Communication with the target participants of the ecbi is crucial to the success of the initiative. Certain communication activities - such as the selection of participants for the Training and Support Programme and Fellowships - are most efficiently carried out at Programme level. Other centrally managed administrative activities are the provision of support to the ecbi Committees, producing the Annual Reports, managing the ecbi database and website, supporting the independent evaluation process, and representational functions during the UNFCCC sessions.
Timeframe
The ecbi began with a one-year pilot phase (2005) and a two-year 'proof-of-concept' phase (2006-7). In 2008 the ecbi established itself as a longer-term European instrument for the sustained building of developing country negotiation capacity through a second Phase (2008-2011). Phase III ran from 2011-2015. ecbi is currently in the fourth phase.
Privacy Notice
The OCP Provacy Notice Concerning the ecbi Network can be found here.
