The Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) aims to improve the commissioning, design, implementation and impact of climate assemblies, using evidence, knowledge exchange and dialogue. We are an active community of policy makers, practitioners, activists, researchers and other actors with experience and interest in climate assemblies who co-create activities and knowledge.
Workshop on Designing the Follow-up to Climate Assemblies
Commissioners, organisers, advocates and researchers of climate assemblies tend to focus most of their attention on the assembly itself. Too often what comes after the assembly is neglected. For those assemblies commissioned by governments (and this is the majority of cases), we tend not to put the same energy and resources into designing and implementing a robust follow-up process within the public administration. No wonder we are often disappointed with the impact of recommendations on policy and strategy.
KNOCA is convinced that we need to pay as much attention to designing the follow-up as we do the design of the climate assembly itself. This workshop is the next step to the production of KNOCA guidance on designing follow-up. It draws on the lessons from previous workshops and the KNOCA Briefing Designing the Follow-up to Climate Assemblies: Embedding Recommendations within the Public Administration that was published in September 2023.
The workshop began with an introduction to the findings from the Briefing, drawing lessons in particular from the design of the follow-up to Scotland’s Climate Assembly with Doreen Grove (Head of Open Government, Scottish Government) and Oliver Escobar (Professor of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation at the University of Edinburgh). We then broke into smaller groups to consider the key messages for future KNOCA guidance on embedding climate assemblies.
Download the presentation by Graham Smith, Chair of KNOCA here.