Country coalitions can be as much in need of negotiating capacity building as individual countries in order to function as an effective group. The Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) has great potential to progress in negotiating skills. To make its voice heard it must build up synergies between its members.

Regional Workshops

The Workshop Programme organises a number of capacity building workshops, namely:

• annual regional workshops:
  • South/Southeast Asia
  • West Sub-Saharan Africa
  • East and Southern Africa
  • Hispanophone workshop in Latin America
  All of these are open to both LDCs and non-LDCs in each region. Participants are drawn from UNFCCC delegations and also from mainstream development ministries


• an annual LDC pre-COP workshop

The Regional Workshops are meant to foster collaboration in the targeted regions as well as to mainstream the climate change issues by involving officials from mainline ministries. Moreover, they are not restricted to LDCs but open to all the countries in the regions to enable the regional negotiators to meet, exchange views, and if they wish, plan together.

The main purpose of the pre-COP Workshops is to support selected negotiators from LDCs to gain a better understanding of the issues discussed at the COPs, as well as to be able to act more effectively as a group (e.g. by dividing tasks among the group instead of all of them to following the same negotiating track). The workshops also help to build negotiating skills through role-playing and practice sessions. While not meant to prepare negotiating positions - the prerogative of the countries themselves - the pre-COP workshops are intended to help build the skills and capacities to negotiate more effectively. Over time it is expected that negotiators will build up expertise in different issues being negotiated (over and beyond LDC specific issues).

The Workshop Programme also engages in post-workshop mentoring and networking of participants.

Further information is available on a PDF from this link.

Recent Workshops News

2011 ecbi Regional Workshop for East-Southern African & South Asian Negotiators The 2011 regional workshop for East and Southern African and South Asian countries took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 31 October to 1 November. It was attended by roughly 30 negotiators and representatives from line ministries from 17 countries. Presentations and discussions included the LDC strategy in the UNFCCC negotiations by the Chair of the LDC Group. Other themes addressed were finance, mitigation, adaptation and legal issues. The workshop provided a timely opportunity for participants to develop and align around LDC key messages for COP17 in Durban. Participant feedback underscored the value of these workshops as a forum for sharing different national views and experience and to learn from more experienced negotiators. The workshop received national press coverage from the Citizen and the Guardian. The workshop was organised with the support of the Government of Tanzania and Environmental Protection and Management Services (EPMS). Report to follow shortly.

2011 Regional ecbi Workshop for West Africa The 2011 regional workshop for West Africa took place in Dakar, Senegal from 18th-19th August. It was attended by around thirty negotiators, parliamentarians, and representatives from line Ministries (Finance, Planning and Environment) from thirteen West and Central African countries. Presentations and discussions included the LDC strategy in the UNFCCC negotiations by the Chair of the LDC Group and the Africa Group strategy in the negotiations by the Chair of the Africa Group. Other themes addressed were adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer, finance, gender, and legal issues. Breakout groups discussed and presented their expectations for Durban. These regional workshop provided a friendly and open platform for different cohorts to discuss strategies for effective decision-making at the international level, and the translation and implementation of those decisions to the national and ground level. It was also an opportunity for each group to understand the technicality and complicated nature of international negotiations and what each group’s role could be for fair and equitable outcomes at the global level. The workshop was organised with the support of the Government of Senegal and ENDA. Presentations available online with the workshop report to follow shortly.

Pre-COP 16 Workshop for African LDC Negotiators On 27th of November, the ecbi held its eighth Pre-COP workshop for African LDC Negotiators in Cancun, Mexico attended by 18 delegates representing Benin, Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho, Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Togo. The Chair of the LDC Group-Bruno Sekoli-discussed the LDC strategy in the upcoming negotiations while the Chair of the Africa Group- Tosi Mpanu Mpanu- discussed the Africa Group strategy in the upcoming COP 16 negotiations. Other presentations were on adaptation, finance, mitigation, and legal issues followed by lively and interactive discussions.

Pre-COP 16 Workshop for South and South East Asian Negotiators On 26th of November, the ecbi held its first Pre-COP workshop for South and South East Asian Negotiators in Cancun, Mexico attended by 20 delegates representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Cambodia. The presentations were on adaptation, finance, loss and damage, and capacity building. Farrukh Khan, the Chair of the UN Adaptation Fund Board, gave a presentation on the recent developments under the Adaptation Fund. All the sessions were followed by lively and interactive discussions. The presentation will be available on the ecbi website ...