How did CCFP come about?

CCFP is being initiated by Michael Hope-Simpson, a Senior Learning Specialist, Facilitator, and Program Manager on a leave of absence from the Government of Canada’s Foreign Ministry (DFATD). Michael, along with a network of associates and colleagues, is a practitioner of multi-stakeholder facilitation for larger scale change.

Over the past 15 years of work, Michael has led teams to develop and extensively test models and tools, revised and updated versions of which are being documented on this website and disseminated to climate change leaders and organizations.

Michael has been able to demonstrate that these tools, working together with other enabling conditions, can solve tough problems and can readily be applied to mobilizing the needed change to reduce global emissions.

These are tools which need to become better known, which need to be applied more widely, and by continuing to build “third party neutral” facilitation capacity in some key climate organizations, these tools can support bringing readily available solutions to scale.

How were the tools developed?

Over a period of 12 years in the Government of Canada, Michael set up and managed a Multi-Stakeholder Facilitation and Training Unit. This small unit developed a range of services in support of the effectiveness of a wide range of International Development Projects and Programs for the Government of Canada and its Development Partners.

Under Michael’s leadership, the Unit developed innovative and acclaimed training which was provided to a thousand or more leaders, and Michael himself led dozens of high impact facilitation and training assignments around the world with consistent success, assessing results and strengthening the change process in well over a hundred Canadian funded projects and programs.

In 2010, Michael attended a course in Facilitating Multi-Stakeholder Processes and Social Learning at Wageningen University, Netherlands. The work of this outstanding group enabled some gaps to be filled, and a bringing together of the Wageningen and Canadian approaches.

At Wageningen, Michael developed a case study on how Multi-Stakeholder Facilitation and Change Process can be combined with the “Wedges Model” of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative of Princeton University. These together provide a comprehensive framework to think about how to mobilize climate change mitigation on a grand scale, encompassing social, institutional, economic and technical dimensions. Please see a revised version of this case study on this site Mobilize Diverse Stakeholders: Process Tools to Implement Grand Scale Solutions to Mitigate Climate Change.

Each part of this model has been tested (either prior to or since its conception), applied, and refined through working in the field on tough global problems.

What is next for CCFP?

CCFP now seeks facilitation projects, sponsors and partners to take this work forward:

• To strengthen climate action;
• To continue documenting tools and good practices;
• To demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods for developing and implementing collaborative strategies and action for emissions reductions;
• And provide services to strengthen the capacity of key organizations and institutions to do collaborative sector-wide planning and action for mitigating climate change.

A few Examples of Multi-stakeholder Facilitation Projects led by Michael Hope-Simpson

• Rapid design of 13 sub-projects in a 2-day Workshop for global response for Wheat and Maize under Climate Change. Climate Change and Food Security Program (CIMMYT-CCAFS), Project Workshop, CIMMYT, Mexico City, (October 2012)
• Lead facilitator and advisor for a CIDA funded multi-stakeholder process which developed a shared results framework for the Justice Sector and Heads of Judiciaries for 11 CARICOM Countries: “A Way Forward for the Justice Sector in the Caribbean”, Port of Spain, Trinidad (July 2011- February 2012)
• Team lead for 2 multi-stakeholder conferences which developed collaborative approaches amongst tribal groups and officials to the Restoration and Development of the Southern Iraq Marshes, Amman, Jordan, (2004-06)
• Team lead to develop leadership courses and curriculum for the Government of Canada in “Results Based Management for the Intercultural and Multi-Stakeholder Context”, and the “Facilitation Training and Capacity Building (FTCB)” course, both courses aimed at collaborative, synergistic, and results based approaches to change. (2002-2011)