Day 1: Wednesday 22 November

8.30 am

Registration

Tea and coffee

9.00 am - 10.30 am

Session 1. Welcome and opening

Sessions leads: Steve Bass and Sofia Ahlroth; Facilitator: Steve Bass

This session will cover introductions, aims and “house rules” of the Forum. There will be a formal welcome, a recap of last year’s forum, and an introduction to this year’s. This will be followed by a ‘newsy’ country panel discussion highlighting progress in relation to the principles and recommendations coming out of the first forum. An “ice-breaker” will be followed by tea.

9.00 am

Welcome from MFA

On behalf of the Forum collaborators: MFA, WAVES and UNSD/DESA

• Carola van Rijnsoever, Director, Inclusive Green Growth Department, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

9.20 am

Recap from last year and aims of this year’s forum

Objectives, outcomes, house rules

• Steve Bass, Senior Associate, IIED, UK (presentation)
• Salvador Sanchez-Colon, Project Director “Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services” - Mexico, UNSD

9.30 am

WAVES

Building NCA into World Bank processes – An expansion of the WAVES program

• Raffaello Cervigni, Lead Economist, World Bank (presentation)

9.40 am

UNCEEA

• Work programme
• SEEA and the SDGs

• Gerard Eding, Director National Accounts, Statistics Netherlands - on behalf of UN Committee of Experts in Environmental-Economic Accounting (presentation)

9.50 am

News panel

Countries reflect on:

• Looking back: Examples where NCA (or another type of NC information) has successfully improved a policy, investment or other decision
• Looking forward: What are the major opportunities to improve decisions? What is the most strategic policy or investment decision upcoming in your country which most needs NCA, and could be targeted?

• Peter Katanisa, Advisor, Ministry of Natural Resources, Rwanda
• Beth Brunoro, First Assistant Secretary, Dept. Environment and Energy Australia
• Kelapile Ndobano, Deputy Secretary of Macroeconomic Policy, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Botswana
• Rosanna Ovalle Vengoechea, Director, Sustainable Environmental Development, Department of National Planning, Colombia (TBC)

10.20 am

Welcome “Icebreaker”

Getting to know our evolving community and its aspirations

• Steve Bass, Senior Associate, IIED, UK
• Salvador Sanchez-Colon, Project Director, Mexico, UNSD

10.30 am

Morning tea

11.00 am - 12.30 pm

Session 2. NCA and the SDGs - Overview

Session leads: Arjan Ruijs and Bram Edens; Facilitator: Salvador Sanchez-Colon

This session will provide an overview of the SDGs and how NCA can help decision makers examine synergies and trade-offs within the SDGs, the institutional arrangements needed to achieve the SDGs, as well as monitoring the SDGs with NCA. It will be a combination of presentations, an expert panel, and table discussions.

11.00 am

Monitoring SDGs with NC

• Bram Edens, Senior Statistician, UNSD (presentation)

11.15 am

Decision-making with NCA for synergies and trade-off

• Arjan Ruijs, Senior Researcher, PBL, Netherlands (presentation)

11.30 am

Panel discussion

• Henry Vargas Campos, Central Bank, Costa Rica
• Pak Medrilzam, Indonesia
• Marisol Rivera, DG Planning, SEMARNAT, Mexico (TBC)
• Salman Hussain, TEEB Coordinator, UNEP

12 noon

Table discussions and report back

12.30 pm

Lunch

1.30 pm - 3.00 pm

Session 3. NCA and the SDGs Goals – The role of business

Session leads: Hannah Pitts, Omer van Renterghem and Elizabeth White; Facilitator: Hannah Pitts

1.30 pm
 

Introduction and welcome

• Introduction to the Natural Capital Protocol
• Context: How businesses have been using natural capital, high-level summary of synergies/differences with NCA

• Hannah Pitts, Relationships Director, NCC, UK

1.45 pm
 

Case studies from business

• Rwanda - tea
• Indonesia - coffee
• UK - urban accounting
• Questions

• Petri Lehtonen, Indufor, Finland (presentation)
• Chris Brown, Vice-president, Olamnet (presentation)
• Ian Dickie, eftec, UK (presentation)

2.15 pm

Reflections on the case studies in light of the SDGs

• Carl Obst, Director, IDEEA, Australia

2.25 pm

Roundtable discussion

• How might we increase linkages between business and policy? Are the SDGs the right vessel to do this?

2.55 pm

Summary and close

3.00 pm

Afternoon tea

3.30 pm - 5.00 pm

Session 4. NCA for SDGs – Exploring poverty reduction and green growth

Session lead and facilitator: Steve Bass

This session will be a workshop where the audience splits up into two groups to explore how NCA can be applied to deal with poverty or with green growth. Poverty reduction is SDG 1, while green growth cuts across several SDGs including SDG 8 - Decent work and economic growth; and SDG 12 - Responsible consumption and production.   

3.30 pm

Session outline and questions for groups

• Addressing the use of NCA for poverty reduction or green growth

• Steve Bass, Senior Associate, IIED, UK

3.40 pm

Briefing 1: 5-minute introductory orientation on current green growth approaches from UNEP

Briefing 2: 5-minute orientation on poverty reduction from World Bank

Briefing 3: 5-minute real-world policy decisions for Zambia relating to green growth and poverty

• Salman Hussain, Coordinator UN TEEB (presentation)
• Raffaello Cervigni, Chief economist Africa, World Bank (presentation)
• Richard Lungu, Principal Planner, Ministry of Development Planning, Zambia (presentation)

3.55 pm

Breakout groups

• Split into two groups: (1) poverty and NCA and (2) green growth and NCA (5 mins)
• Group discussion (40 mins)
• Report back from both groups (5 mins each)

4.50 pm

Room discussion based on the report back

5.00

Summary of the day

• Steve Bass, Senior Associate, IIED, UK
• Salvador Sanchez-Colon, Project Director Mexico, UNSD

5.15pm to 7.00 pm

Cocktail function

Day 2: Thursday 23 November 2017

8.30 am

Arrival

Tea and coffee

9.00 am - 10.30 am

Session 5. NCA for SDG15 - Life on land

Session leads: Bram Edens and Rocky Harris; facilitator: Salvador Sanchez-Colon

This session will examine how NCA can be applied to the management of terrestrial ecosystems, including the sustainable use of forests, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.

9.00 am

Introduction to the session

• Rocky Harris, Defra, UK
• Bram Edens, UNSD (presentation)

9.10 am

Country experiences (10 mins each)

• UK - Forest Policy
• Australia - Revealing trade-offs in timber, water and biodiversity
• South Africa – TBC
• Uganda - Using NCA for Aichi and NBSAP Targets

• Miranda Winram, UK (presentation)
• Michael Vardon, ANU, Australia (presentation)
• Amanda Driver, SANBI, South Africa (presentation: part 1 and part 2)
• Steve King, UNEP-WCMC, UK (presentation)

10.00 am

Table discussion

• Questions to answer from list

Theme-based discussions (e.g. biodiversity, forestry)

10.30 am

Morning tea

11:00 am-12.30 pm

Session 6. NCA for government processes

Session leads: Arjan Ruijs, Sofia Ahlroth, and Michael Vardon; Facilitator: Michael Vardon

This session will look at how NCA can be applied to government processes and policy tools (such as budgeting and taxation), and how NCA can be used in models to assess the impact of particular policy options. (presentation)

11.00 am

Botswana – Importance of water and NCA for sustainable development

• Presentation (10 mins)
• Questions (5 mins)

• Edwin Itshekeng, Botswana (presentation)

11.15 am

Indonesia – National Development Planning and NCA

• Presentation (10 mins)
• Questions (5 mins)

• Dr. Medrilzam, Indonesia (presentation)

11.30 am

Rwanda – NCA as input to the mid-term National Strategy, 2018 to 2023

• Presentation (10 mins)
• Questions (5 mins)

• Claudine Uwera, WAVES Rwanda (presentation)

11.45 am

Australia – Developing strategy and action plan for environmental economic accounting

• Presentation (10 mins)
• Questions (5 mins)

• Sarah-Jane Hindmarsh, Director, Environmental-Economic Accounting, DoEE, Australia (presentation)

12 noon

Table discussions and report back

12.30 pm

Lunch

1.30 pm - 2.30 pm

Session 7. NCA for assessing trade-offs

Session lead: Sofia Ahlroth; Facilitator: Juan Pablo Castaneda (presentation)

This session will look at how economic modeling can be of help to consider synergies and trade-offs and assess the multiple effects of government policies.

1.30 pm

Accounting and modeling complex trade-offs

• Presentation

• Onil Banerjee, Natural Resource Economist, IAB (presentation: part 1 and part 2)

1.50 pm

Country experience

• Costa Rica - The impact of tax exemptions on electric vehicles: an application of the IEEM platform 

• Irene Alvarado-Quesada, Central Bank, Costa Rica (presentation)

2.00 pm

Questions and discussion

2.30 pm -4.30 pm

Session 8. The way forward

Session leads: Arjan Ruijs and Sofia Ahlroth; Facilitators: Steve Bass and Salvador Sanchez-Colon

This session will examine how we can continue working together, building on the living principles and the community of practice, and identifying processes for collaboration and development of guidance materials.

2.30 pm

Building NCA into World Bank processes – An expansion of the WAVES program

• Discussion/feedback

• Raffalleo Cervigni, World Bank (presentation)

2.50 pm

UNSD – reflections on way forward

• Bram Edens, UNSD

3.00 pm

Afternoon tea

3.30 pm – 4.30 pm

Session 8, continued. Toward forum recommendations

3.30 pm

SDGs and NCA

Research and collaboration on NCA for SDGs uses

• Bram Edens and Sofia Ahlroth

3.35 pm

Linking business and country accounting

• Hannah Pitts

3.40 pm

Development of guidance material

• Michael Vardon

3.45 pm

Communications on NCA for SDGs

• Rosalind Goodrich

3.50 pm

Table discussions

• Research
• Business roles
• Guidance materials
• Communications

4.20 pm

Tables report back

4.30 pm - 5.00 pm

Session 9. Summary and close

Session leads: Steve Bass and Omer van Renterghem

This session will draw together the main threads of the forum, synthesizing key messages and identifying the ways that participants may contribute to the strengthening of linkages between NCA and the achievement of the SDGs

4.30 pm

Summary of key messages

• Steve Bass
• Salvador Sanchez-Colon

4.45 pm

Closing remarks

• Sofia Ahlroth
• Bram Edens
• Omer van Renterghem

5.00 pm

Close of forum