Multi-stakeholder partnerships – ENHANCE
Enhancing the role of Multi-Sector Partnerships in supporting climate resilience across Europe.
About
There is a tendency for different institutions and sectors to work in isolation from one another. This means that substantial opportunities for sharing information and developing innovative solutions, to both prepare and respond to disasters, are being missed. The ENHANCE project, in which ClimateWise was involved, sought to address these challenges by focusing on the role that Multi-Sector Partnerships (MSPs) can play.
The idea behind MSPs is that they build on growing awareness that governments can’t do everything by themselves and that the private sector – and especially the insurance industry – often has an inherent interest in reducing societal risk exposure. Governments inevitably play an important role in supporting economically efficient measures to help reduce risk. For example, if insurers could clearly communicate risk, they could encourage measures to mitigate risk. Consequently, reliable access to quality information can stimulate a positive response that makes economic sense for all stakeholders involved.
ENHANCE ran for four years and developed ten MSPs between public, private and civil society stakeholders. All had an emphasis on the financial sector.
Findings
The ENHANCE project delivered a series of scientific and political findings at the EU, national and local levels. Outcomes ranged from the promotion of knowledge sharing through to direct policy recommendations on risk reduction measures.
One example of an MSP was the Wadden Sea Forum in Germany which is integrating the impact of climate change into their activities. Similarly, the Rotterdam Port Authority in the Netherlands, together with the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, has now committed about €200,000 to better understand the risk climate change presents the harbour. As Europe’s largest, this is crucial in increasing awareness and stakeholder communication and helping to develop a resilience strategy.
ENHANCE also contributed to a number of new European and international policy frameworks. These included the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement recognising that while the State has the primary duty to reduce disaster risk, responsibility should also be shared with other stakeholders.