Consensus Building and
Conflict Resolution toolkit
An instrument developed for the PathFinder
By the Consensus Building Institute
Presentation prepared by Pierre Hauselmann
Links and keywords
• Links with other instruments
– Certification for the People
– Intiating a NWG
– Developing Forest Stewardship Standards - a Survival Guide.
• Keywords
– Decision rules, Goal setting, Ground rules, Independent
facilitator, Joint fact finding, Mutual gain negotiation,
Stakeholder assessment
– Copyrights
– CB/CR Toolkit: © 2003 Pi Environmental Consulting,
Consensus Building Istitute & WWF
– The PathFinder background picture:
© WWF-Canon / Michèle Dépraz
Developed by
• Consensus Building Institute, Inc (CBI)
www.cbuilding.org
• Based on
– Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law
School
– MIT-Harvard public dispute program
– 20 years of practical experience by CBI
Overview
• Tools to be used at 3 stages of
standardisation process
– Initiation,
– establishment of a standard setting committee
(SSC) &
– standard development
• Complement the FSC national initiatives
manual
Overview
• Section 1
– Introduction
• Section 2
– How to conduct a
stakeholder
assessment
• Section 3
– Goals, ground rules
and decision rules
of a SSC
• Section 4
– CB & CR tools for
standard
development
Overview
• Fictional cases
– Fictional examples to stimulate thinking and
dialogue
• Diagrams
• List of resources
Standardisation process
The Consensus Building process
Initiation
Stakeholder assessment
Yes/No decision
Establish standard setting
committee or NWG
Joint fact finding
For complex scientific
and technical questions
Generating options
Packages for mutual gains
Agreement
Distribute value
Follow through
Implementation,
monitoring,
evaluation and revision
Stakeholder assessment
Initiation
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
Follow through
•
•
•
•
•
Identify groups
Learn their concerns
Assess their incentives
Identify areas of agreement and conflicts
Begin planning process
Stakeholder assessment
Initiation
• Need
– Skilled and impartial assessor
• Needed to bridge between sometime
antagonistic stakeholders
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
Follow through
• Key questions
– Whether and how to conduct a standard setting
process
– Key issues to be addressed
– Who need to be involved
Stakeholder assessment
Initiation
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
• Tool to
Follow through
– Gather information
– Building trust
– Maximise chances to reach broad consensus
How to conduct a stakeholder
assessment
See Annex 7 of the CB/CR
toolkit for details
Establishing the Standard
Setting Committee (SSC)
Initiation
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
• Goal setting
–
–
–
–
Follow through
Tailored to specific SSC interests and concerns
Reflects general FSC guidelines
Strong foundation for working together
Spend enough time to make it a meaningful
document, but not so much as make it a source
of conflict
Establishing the Standard
Setting Committee (SSC)
Initiation
• Ground rules:
– ensure common understanding of
roles and responsibilities and create an
environment for productive discussions
– Roles and responsibilities
– Meeting and discussion guidelines
– When and how communicate between
members and externally
– How to resolve conflicts
– How to access and use funds
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
Follow through
Establishing the Standard
Setting Committee (SSC)
Initiation
• Decision rules:
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
– consensus seeking and no consensus
Follow through
alternatives
• strict consensus requirement can block process
– If no consensus
• Voting
– 2/3 majority of members + simple majority
within chambers
• Identify consensus and non consensus clauses and
– have NWG take decision
– have an independent body recognised by all SSC
members recommend or take decision
Developing standards
Initiation
• Use independent facilitators
– ex assessor?
– more efficient meetings and reduced
interpersonal tension
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
Follow through
• Demonstrated experience
• Basic understanding of topic
• Impartiality
– Ground rules to allow questioning impartiality by SSC
members
Developing standards
Initiation
• Joint fact finding
– Helps members to get a common
understanding
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
Follow through
– Avoids “expert duelling”
– Stakeholder groups work jointly to
• define technical /scientific questions to be answered
• identify resource persons
• monitor progress of studies
Developing standards
Initiation
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
• Mutual gains approach
Generating options
Agreement
Follow through
– Reach agreements better for all
stakeholders than the “no-agreement”
alternative
– Not all stakeholders will achieve equal gains
– Key stakeholders are willing to participate
Developing standards
Initiation
• Reaching decision on contentious
issues
– Seek wise trade off between clauses
– Create contingent agreements
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
Follow through
• Possibility to change agreement in response to future
developments
– Use fair and objective standard or person
• Refer to similar situations in other places
• Ask a reputed “wise person”
– Use agreed no-consensus decision rules
• voting
Developing standards
Initiation
• Questions before final
agreement
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
– Is the standard wise?
– Is it fair?
– Is it durable?
– How will it be monitored, evaluated and
revised?
Follow through
Follow through
Initiation
Yes/No decision
Joint fact finding
Generating options
Agreement
• Make it easy to live up to
Follow through
commitments
• Agree on monitoring arrangements
• Align organizational incentives and control
• Keep working to improve relations
• Agree to use neutrals to resolve
disagreements