Course #1: Impact Assessment and Stakeholder Engagement: Effective Approaches and Techniques

 

 

 

This one-day course will utilize IAP2's Public Participation for Decision Makers materials, which look at effective foundations in participation and how to best integrate engagement into proposal development and impact assessment. The course examines costs and benefits, discusses when, why, and how to involve the public, and emphasizes the importance of both the decision being made and the promise to the public about their involvement in that process, including being clear on "negotiables" and "non-negotiables". It also highlights the importance of informing the public how their input have influenced a decision, and if not, why not.
Uniquely, participants will be asked to submit ideas for case studies—examples regarded as successful and also ineffective or poor/bad practice. The course will draw out lessons learned from all case studies.

At the conclusion of this course, participants will have learned: methods for ensuring effective and well planned and resourced engagement; principles of good practice engagement, as applied to impact assessment and SDGs; when and why to have the public participate in their decisions—how to build in early stake-holder involvement; the decision maker's unique role and commitment; ways to influence decision makers to engage the public; and techniques for sharing information, collecting and compiling information and bringing people together—when and why to use different technique formats, and insights into a few select techniques.
Level: Intermediate to advanced, particularly for those who have existing experience in the field and want to focus on new skills regarding public participation, particularly as it relates to impact assessment and working towards achieving the SDGs in Asia
Prerequisites: An understanding of what makes for good practice public participation, a willingness to apply this to a range of techniques, a willingness to engage actively throughout the day
Duration: 1 day (3 October)
Min/Max: 10-25
Instructor(s):

Tanya Burdett, Essential Planning Ltd (Australia)

Margaret Harvie (Australia)

 

Tanya Burdett (Director, Essential Planning Ltd) has over 23 years' experience in stakeholder engagement and consultation. Her engagement work ranges from consultation on master plans setting out future visions for small communities of a few thousand people, to engagement across country-wide programs and on major new project and policy initiatives.

She has worked on over 160 projects in various sectors, each one requiring differing levels of stake-holder engagement. Tanya's experience covers a range of sectors including: planning strategy and policy development; urban development; energy planning and development; transport; water supply and sanitation; mining and resources; oil and gas; coastal development, marinas and leisure facilities; and other industrial development.
In the UK Tanya's roles have included direct engagement by various central government departments on implementation of European legislation and UNECE conventions on EIA, SEA, engagement and public participation within the spatial planning sector.

Tanya provides ongoing advice to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) as part of the EIA Quality Mark Panel, and continues to deliver IAP2 training in the UK in association with the University of Westminster and various other organizations. Tanya has delivered IAP2 training and other capacity building activities in the UK, Ireland, Hungary, Portugal, Poland, Belgium, Ghana, Yemen, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and Australia, and has worked in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Western Samoa.

Margaret Harvie has had a professional career in community engagement, impact assessment and management of communications to engage the public forever 20 years. She has trained in Singapore, Malaysia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. Over a period of around 11 years she has trained more than 1,000 people in IAP2 courses.

Margaret has the ability to bring her day-to-day, and often very recent, experiences as a practitioner into the classroom.