The role of multi-stakeholder forums in subnational jurisdictions

This literature review, published in 2019, is part of the training materials designed for a comparative field study of multi-stakeholder forums conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) under its Global Comparative Study on REDD+.

Examining papers from subnational level MSFs in Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Peru, it highlights two key issues:

• A lack of coordination between the increasing variety of actors that determine land-use practices on the ground.
• The recognition of power inequalities between the stakeholders and sectors involved.

It aims to analyze exactly how the participants in an MSF are selected, their relations to each other and whether they feel their needs have been addressed; whether equity has been achieved.

A radical alternative or the new ‘new tyranny’?

-Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti and Anne M Larson