Category: News

Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) and the Irish Environmental Network (IEN) are delighted to have received funding from the Government of Ireland Shared Island Civic Society Fund to develop and deliver a series of five facilitated thematic dialogues and a final in-person networking forum between January and September 2024.

The main purpose of this project is to promote and deepen cooperation and dialogue between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland eNGOs and environmental civil society groups so that the sector is equipped to fully engage with, and respond to, the new environmental regulatory and governance context post-Brexit.

Each of the 5 dialogues, will be held online to maximise access. The initial dialogue will give an introduction to the post-Brexit environment and the following four will explore a specific environmental challenge. The theme of the environmental challenge will be up to you.

The participants will discuss possible solutions and policy responses that they believe are appropriate for introducing/implementing/exploring on an all-island basis or on both sides of the border. These solutions/policy responses will be recorded by the organisers and presented at a final in-person networking event.

The first dialogue will take place online using Zoom on Wednesday 14 February from 1030am until 1pm  and you can register for that here. The Zoom link will be issued to registered participants in advance of the session.

Following this, dialogues will take place monthly, concluding in June, with the final networking event scheduled for mid/late September.

This first session will set the context for the rest of the series – Dr Lisa Whitten (QUB) will give an expert overview of the environmental regulatory context post-Brexit. We will follow this with a discussion on why deeper dialogue and cooperation between environmental organisations in Ireland and Northern Ireland is necessary and discussing with participants what you think is important and what thematic areas might be prioritised.

To help us with our planning we would be grateful if you could respond to the short survey available through the link below. It will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.

We hope you or other organisation representatives can participate and please circulate this invitation to other relevant organisations and people that you think might be interested. There is no limit to the number of people per organisation that can attend.

Survey link All Island Civil Society Forum on the Environment Survey

LENS (Linking the Environment North and South): All Island Civil Society Forum on the Environment:

Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) and the Irish Environment Network (IEN) are the two membership organisations for the environmental charity sectors in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. NIEL has more than 65 organisational members and IEN has 34.

Both IEN and NIEL have been working together on joint projects for a number of years. However, the withdrawal of the UK from the EU has demonstrated a need for environmental civil society organisations north and south to engage in greater all-island collaboration. The most recent collaboration between IEN and NIEL was the commissioning of research on post-Brexit all-island environmental governance and recommendations on improving environmental cooperation on the island. One of the recommendations of the report was the establishment of an all-island civil society dialogue/forum on the environment.

IEN and NIEL have been successful in securing funding to run an all-island forum on the environment and are now looking for an experienced external consultant/s with significant facilitation experience to assist in the development and management of the Forum over the next year.

This project is being funded by the Government of Ireland Shared Island Civic Society Fund

Project Aim:

The main purpose of this project is to promote and deepen cooperation and dialogue between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland ENGOs and environmental civil society groups in order that the sector be equipped to fully engage with, and respond to, the new environmental regulatory and governance context post-Brexit

This project will give participants an opportunity to partake in an in-depth dialogue on the environment with a focus on north/south cooperation.

Finally, a key aim of the Forum is to create lasting networks between environmental civil society organisations north and south.

Project Description:

The project will be open to participants from any Enviromental civil society organisation, be they local or national, and we will encourage attendance from all parts of the island.

The project will take the form of five facilitated thematic dialogues and a final in-person networking forum.

Each of the dialogues will explore a specific environmental challenge such as climate, biodiversity or water quality. The participants will discuss possible solutions and policy responses that they believe are appropriate for introducing / implementing / exploring on an all-island basis or on both sides of the border. These solutions/policy responses will be recorded by the organisers and presented at the final Networking Forum.

The online dialogues will be followed by in in-person Networking Forum, providing participants with the opportunity to network with each other. There will be a report to the Forum on the results of the dialogue.

This project will be inclusive of all interested environmental civil society groups whether they are members of IEN or NIEL or not.

Format:

The facilitated thematic dialogues will take place online in order to facilitate a wide attendance of participants across the island.

The final networking event will however take place in person, to facilitate deeper networking and relationship building between participants. This event will be held in a location accessible by public transport in the border area.

Delivery

The main output will be the holding of five thematic dialogues followed by a report on the process and results. The consultant facilitator/s will be expected to plan, co-ordinate, deliver and report on the dialogues. The consultant/s will also deliver a presentation on the report to the final networking forum.

The consultant will be expected to:

Plan and deliver the five dialogues from initial call for participants to final report including:

• Managing the invites (including supplying programme for this purpose , e.g. Eventbrite)
• Supplying and managing the online platform to be used
• In consultation with NIEL and IEN planning the content and agenda/format of the dialogues
(including consultation of participants on themes for dialogue, e.g. by survey)
• Facilitating the dialogues
• Producing a report on the dialogues

The successful consultant/s will report to an IEN and NIEL project steering group.

Criteria for Appointment

Criteria for Applicants:

• At least two years’ experience delivering similar programmes
• Specific experience in facilitation of workshops or dialogues in either cross-community or other civil society programmes
• Excellent facilitation, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Specific experience of use of online tools for dialogue and deliberation
• Access to tools for online dialogue and deliberation
• Specific experience in report writing

Desirable

• Good knowledge of environmental issues

Submissions will be evaluated in accordance with following criteria:

Criteria	Commentary	Weighting
Value for Money	Your submission should include a detailed breakdown of costs; this must include the proposed number of days work, and the daily fee rates.	30%
Previous experience of facilitation	Evidence of skills/experience in facilitation of similar events, including brief portfolio of relevant work is required (At least 3 examples); information/CVs on who will be delivering  the project	30%
Previous experience of project management	Evidence of experience in managing projects of a similar scale and nature, including management of online participative events, event administrative and management experience,  Submissions must provide evidence of knowledge and experience of use of online event technology/tools.	20%
Delivery methodology	Tenderers must describe the methodology they will use to deliver the dialogues with specific reference to both facilitation approach and practical delivery of online dialogue events	20%
Timeframe	Ability to complete work within the agreed timeframe	Pass/Fail

Failure to include all of the above may lead to disqualification.

Timeframe and Reporting

The programme will run from end November 2023 until September 2024, with the following milestones anticipated:

– Project Initiation – End November 2023

– Agreed priority actions – Early December 2023

– Final report – September 2024

The project will be managed by a Steering Group comprised of staff from NIEL and IEN.

The successful tenderer will be required to report regularly to the Steering Group.

Budget

A maximum sum of €15,200 + VAT is available for this contract, which must include all other expenses including any travel, personal expenses, events or other engagements.

Tenderers should price accordingly to gain a competitive advantage.

Tenders received over this amount will not be considered.

Proposal Submissions

Email submissions to: office@ien.ie

Deadline for Submissions:

 12 PM Friday, 10 November 2023

Any queries should be submitted in writing by noon on Wednesday November 1st

We are not bound to accept either the lowest or any of the quotes received.

This project is funded by the Government of Ireland Shared Island Civic Society Fund

Special Law conference in The Great Hall, The King’s Inns, Dublin, Friday, 29^th September, 3.15pm – 7.10pm, followed by conference reception.

 The Aarhus Convention is an international Human Rights Convention concerned with Environmental Democracy. Twenty-five years on from its adoption in 1998, the relevance of the Aarhus Convention has never been clearer. The Convention provides for key obligations on State Parties and rights for the public. The objective is to protect the right of this and future generations to live in an environment adequate to their health and well-being. It specifies the rights of the public and obligations that the Irish State has regarding the provision of environmental information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters.

To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the adoption of the Aarhus Convention and the 11^th anniversary of the Convention coming into effect in Ireland, the Irish Environmental Network is hosting a significant Law conference on Friday, 29^th September, in the King’s Inns. The conference will also be available online and can be viewed by selecting an online ticket at https://t.co/gfmiH9sYvm.

The event will be chaired by former Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, President of the Law Reform Commission,

The stellar line of Speakers includes:

• Ms Justice Marie Baker, Supreme Court of Ireland;
• Professor Áine Ryall, UCC School of Law, and Chair of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee;
• Ms Sibylle Grohs Senior Lawyer, DG-Envi, EU Commission;
• Mr Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders.
• Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the Office of Environmental Enforcement, EPA Ireland;
• Ms Deirdre McGoldrick, Senior Investigator, Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information and Office of the Information Commissioner,
• Mr Tom Flynn SC, and
• Mr Gregory Jones KC.

Attracta Uí Bhroin, Environmental Law Officer of the IEN said: “The Aarhus Convention was described by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, as the ‘most ambitious venture in environmental democracy undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations’[1]. The conference will focus on a positive celebration of the Aarhus Convention and some of its key aspects, and our objective is to increase awareness of these and the Convention’s ongoing and indeed increased relevance given the existential environmental challenges of our world of today, and what the IPCC has described as inter-dependent climate and biodiversity crises.”

These important Aarhus anniversaries coincide with the mid-point milestone in 2023 for the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs.

Uí Bhroin continued: We live in a year, 2023, which should see us well on half way to delivering on the SDGs by 2030. But as recently highlighted by the UN Secretary General António Guterres – only 15 per cent of the targets are on track, with many going into reverse. President Michael D Higgins also highlighted we are failing, with those who have least contributed to climate change paying the highest price. So with this positive celebration of this progressive and far-sighted Convention we wish to energise and galvanise focus in leveraging it as a key mechanism to deliver on many of the SDGs, for example on climate action, water quality, health and well-being, marine life, sustainable cities, clean energy and more.”

“Aarhus is about providing people with environmental information they need to help them decide when they need to act and engage, and to be able participate in an informed way, and input into environmental decision-making on developments, law, plans and policies effectively, and to seek access to justice when necessary.”

Uí Bhroin concluded: “Even if you think you will never go to court, we all know it is important the Public Authorities, including the Government and Ministers, know they can be held to account before our courts. By providing for obligations on transparency and practical rights to challenge decisions of public authorities, Aarhus helps to maintain good standards of decision-making on environmental matters – which is so critical today.”

Given the public interest nature of this initiative, the event is free, open to all, available online and will be recorded to increase its reach.

There is significant interest in the event with registrations for in person attendance from: members of the Judiciary from Ireland and Northern Ireland; members of the Bar of Ireland, and Law Society of Ireland; legislators from both Houses of the Oireachtas; members of Local Government;  officials from government departments from Ireland and the UK and from State bodies and various agencies; academics; participants from a range of professional bodies and associations; students of Law and the Environment and a range of disciplines; eNGOs; environmental activists; members of the public and of course the media, with a good cross section of these from the UK and Europe also participating online.

[1] Statement of the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, at the first meeting of the Parties, Lucca, Italy, 21 to 23 October 2002 (‘the first meeting of the Parties’).