Coordination and Facilitation

No one in the conservation community can achieve the grand goals of conservation alone. We must all work together efficiently to have maximum impact. To be able to work together successfully, however, careful coordination and facilitation are needed ﾖ both within and among organizations. Such coordination and facilitation requires clarity of purpose, diplomacy, neutrality, and strong management skills to be able to capture the potential a group offers.

FOS staff brings these skills, along with our technical expertise in conservation and monitoring and evaluation, to serve the conservation community as an independent and non-aligned facilitator. We help bring together diverse groups of implementing and funding organizations to improve the practice of conservation.

Examples of Our Work in Coordination and Facilitation

Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) ﾖ CMP is a group of representatives from various conservation organizations who collaborate to develop and promote common standards for planning, implementing, and measuring the impact of conservation actions. Core members include African Wildlife Foundation, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, and World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund. As the coordinator for CMP, FOS organizes and facilitates meetings, coordinates technical work, handles administrative matters, and provides technical advice where needed.  

 

The Nature Conservancy's Multi-Stakeholder Conservation Planning in the Hudson River Estuary Watershed - In 2005, FOS worked with TNC's Eastern New York Chapter to facilitate a multi-stakeholder planning effort for the Hudson River Estuary Watershed.  This effort brought together more than 50 people from over 20 organizations to use TNC's Conservation Action Planning Process to develop targets, a situation analysis, strategies, and a monitoring plan for the Hudson River Estuary Watershed between the Troy Dam and New York City.  Reports are available for the planning products and the facilitation process used during the planning stage.  Additional products are available through TNC's ConserveOnline web portal.

 

Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Strategic Planning Sessions ﾖ FOS staff members have facilitated several strategic planning retreats for the society.  These retreats have served as the basis of SCBﾒs recent growth and international expansion.

 

USAID Health People Healthy Planet Workshop, 2004 World Conservation Congress ﾖ FOS prepared a conceptual document and facilitated a workshop to develop results chains for projects that use population and health interventions to achieve conservation.  The workshop was attended by practitioners in population, health, and environment who intended to use the exercise to develop monitoring plans and identify indicators to help them determine the impact of their actions and improve project management. 

What Can FOS Offer You?

• Are you a member of an existing group that is having difficulties moving forward or making decisions?
• Are you trying to bring together a new group of people with common interests to work through a particular conservation issue, activity, or process?
• Are you in need of an external, non-aligned perspective to help facilitate this work?
• Do you want facilitators with solid technical knowledge, field-based experience, and strong facilitation skills?

If you answered ﾓyesﾔ to most of the above questions, you may want to contact FOS for coordination and facilitation assistance.  FOS has experience facilitating long-term partnerships trying to achieve multiple goals, as well as shorter-term working groups on specific topics.  We bring a unique combination of technical knowledge, field experience, managerial skills, and facilitation techniques to our coordination and facilitation work.  We can work with you to design a facilitation role for FOS that meets the particular needs of your group.