FLEGT VPA
The FLEGT Facilitator is responsible for the facilitation of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between Guyana and the European Union (EU). Facilitators help diverse stakeholders reach a consensus on how to govern and use forests and their resources through the VPA’s Multi-stakeholder Dialogue Approach. The goal is to find solutions to stakeholders’ problems while ensuring that the VPA emerges from a country-owned process.
The FLEGT facilitator is neutral to the process and is ‘on the side of the VPA’. They do not represent the interests of the EU, the partner country or any other group. As such, they work to help stakeholders drive the VPA process themselves, ensuring a multi-stakeholder approach of quality and integrity.
A FLEGT facilitator’s role is to:
- Connect with and coordinate interactions among diverse stakeholders
- Ensure stakeholders are comfortable with the pace of the VPA process
- Identify all the possible stakeholders explaining the VPA to them, encouraging their participation fully in the process, and helping them create a supportive space where their voices are heard.
- Understand stakeholder concerns and help frame those concerns in a manner that can be useful for the process
- Advise stakeholders
- Support the EU delegation in donor coordination
- Collaborate with implementors, including Government, and promote coordination to ensure the effective involvement
- Promote synergies between the VPA and other initiatives such as REDD+
- Ensure the steady flow of information
- Organise events or meetings.
