REFERENCE LIBRARY >> consultation
Consultation
This section provides information on community consultation including the elements of good consultation and the experience of community involvement in hazardous waste management.
Elements of Good Consultation
Community Involvement In Scheduled Waste Management
Problem Solving Through Effective Community Consultation
Elements of Good Consultation
Effective consultation with non government stakeholders including business and civil society can improve joint problem identification and foster cooperative solutions. Involvement by civil society can increase the degree of ownership of implementation measures and most importantly, help build the political will to ensure adequate resources to both implement the MEAs and establish environmental sound management of toxic chemicals and hazardous waste.
Consultation Principles
A good dialogue must be based on a principled approach. Carson provides ten guiding principles community consultation; timeliness, inclusiveness, community focus, interactive and deliberative, effectiveness, flexibility, cost effectiveness, well facilitated, open, fair and subject to evaluation and most importantly, making it matter.
Once the principles are established they can be developed into a consultation protocol.
Community Consultation Protocol
A protocol for community consultation explains the aims of the process and outlines the principles on which it will be based. It provides a publicly accessible document that can be used as a 'yardstick' to measure the process. In preparing the protocol, it is important to be explicit about the objectives of the consultation and clearly define the share in decision making process being offered.
Good Planning in Cooperation with Participants
Community consultation needs good planning in cooperation with participants. It is important to seek early advice from stakeholders on advertising, venues, dates and any special needs of potential participants.
Some recommended steps of the planning process include:
A Comprehensive Contact Database
Effective involvement consultation requires a comprehensive up-to-date database of interested individuals, stakeholders and representative organisations. If key stakeholders are omitted from the process, even for a short time, it can seriously affect the credibility of the whole process. It is important to be as inclusive as possible, provide opportunities for all interested parties to be involved and when contacting organisations allowing sufficient time for notification to 'filter' down to local representatives. It is important to consider at an early stage those stakeholders or entities unable to directly participate but whose interests are affected.
Communication About the Dialogue
It is essential to communicate widely about the proposed process to ensure all that are interested are aware of the consultation and foster an open and inclusive approach. The choice of how the process is advertised is influenced by the available resources but some of the most appropriate and cost-effective approaches involve stories and interviews in local newspapers, radio interviews, local TV news spots and direct networking with stakeholder groups.
Negotiation of the Rules
It is important to negotiate an understanding between all the participants about process and its protocols. Most importantly, the level to which participants will be able to influence outcomes needs to be discussed. "Effective public involvement needs to be a structured process, where the agreed rules of engagement are clearly articulated and acceptable to key stakeholders."
Appropriate Resourcing
Some times interested parties cant participate because of logistical or financial limitations. Often the provision of childcare or travel assistance can address this but there are situations where a sitting fee is essential. In government or industry initiated processes, if stakeholders are expected to commit large amounts of time either attending meetings or reviewing material, it is unreasonable to expect them to do so when they may suffer financial loss as a consequence of their involvement.
Community Capacity Building
Much chemical information is technical, complex and often difficult for the lay community to effectively utilise. So to ensure informed discussion of the impacts, risks and benefits of particular policy or environmental decision, often process of skills or knowledge development are needed. But consultation processes need to accept the right of stakeholders to relevant information, in a suitable language and format.
Joint Fact Finding
Joint fact-finding among stakeholders can be useful for tapping into local or community knowledge, getting the benefit of industry's expertise and the knowledge base of educational institutions.
Decisions Audits
To achieve confidence in the consultation, a record of the dialogue process, listing questions and comments matched with the responses, allows participants to track the issue and understand the dynamics of the outcome. A decision audit should then list the major decision outcomes.
Monitoring and Review
Consultation processes need follow up and feedback and notifying participants of the outcomes is a common courtesy. A review of the outcomes and feedback about their implementation will enhance public trust and build on the body of knowledge.
Community Involvement In Scheduled Waste Management
ABSTRACT
National Advisory Body on Scheduled Waste (NAB)
The cooperative development of management plans for the scheduled wastes, PCBs, HCBs and organochlorine pesticides is a positive example of the benefits of community participation in environmental decision making. The problem of Australia's intractable waste had remained unresolved through over a decade of committees, investigations and panels. In 1992, acting on the advice of an Independent Panel on Intractable the Commonwealth and State Environment Ministers as ANZECC announced they would abandon any further attempt to establish a centralised high temperature incinerator. In 1994, ANZECC formed the National Advisory Body on Scheduled Waste (NAB), comprised of representatives from community, industry and environment groups as well as local government. While the negotiation and consultation process was arduous and intense, this consultative forum provided ongoing opportunities for input from interested groups and the general community and as well, a safe venue for open and honest dialogue between industry and environment groups. The relative success of the NAB process was due to its inclusiveness, its transparency ands its commitment to equity.
Community Involvement
In Scheduled Waste Management
Dr. Mariann Lloyd-Smith
ID_No. c2008 #Adobe pdf file 53KB
Problem Solving Through Effective Community Consultation
Introduction
In many countries, for 20 years or more, issues relating to the treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes have often created great controversy. Australia has witnessed its share of such controversy. Over the past few years, governments working together with key stakeholders have moved towards a resolution of Australia’s longest-running and most controversial hazardous waste issue, the treatment and disposal of stable organochlorine wastes.
Problem Solving Through Effective Community Consultation
Dr. P. Brotherton
ID_No. c2007 #Adobe pdf file 37KB
consultation