The LEDS Global Partnership Secretariat organised a Strategic Dialogue for the LEDS GP Steering Committee, Regional Platforms, Working Groups and a few wider partners on Saturday 12^th November, 2016, on the side lines of COP22, Marrakech. 

The LEDS Global Partnership Secretariat organised a Strategic Dialogue for the LEDS GP Steering Committee, Regional Platforms, Working Groups and a few wider partners on Saturday 12^th November, 2016, on the side lines of COP22, Marrakech.  The session was opened by LEDS GP Secretariat Co-Directors, Ron Benioff (NREL) and Janet Strachan (CDKN) who referred to the LEDS GP draft Strategic Plan 2017-2020, which was developed this year, and was the focus for discussion during the dialogue.

The objectives of this half-day session were to:

• Deepen the common understanding within the Partnership of the value and role of the LEDS GP;

• Provide inputs and recommendations for the results framework, role and strategic value of the platform;

• Provide recommendations on how to deepen impact, strengthen strategic partnerships and diversify finance.

The key findings and reinforcements from the discussions were as follows:

• LEDS GP has a unique role to play in enabling peer learning and exchange, technical collaboration, and access to knowledge and advisory support for LEDS practitioners and should maintain its focus on this core practitioner based learning and collaboration role.

• LEDS GP should also serve as an amplifier to scale up and replicate best practices and good approaches, showcase leadership, and provide access to filtered, focused and highly useful information.

• LEDS GP will continue to provide and expand support to countries to implement their NDCs while ensuring linkages to LEDS and mid-century strategies are made, which offer a longer-term vision and transformational change.

• LEDS GP should expand collaboration across countries and international partners to deepen practitioner based learning on selected priority topics for countries and foster joint action by groups of early mover countries and capturing good practices from initiatives supported by others, with a focus on learning and replication of successful approaches.

• LEDS GP will strengthen collaboration with the newly formed NDC Partnership to ensure that we build on respective strengths. LEDS GP primarily offers peer learning, technical collaboration and early mover support among LEDS practitioners, while the NDC Partnership focuses on donor coordination and helping countries to access assistance, political level NDC dialogues and access to knowledge products.

• LEDS GP will deepen partnerships with other institutions to promote knowledge products from partners, build demand for LEDS GP’s advisory services, and partner on topic specific trainings and peer learning activities.

• Given these findings, LEDS GP will further iterate the draft Strategic Plan, with a view to finalise the draft by January 2017, and emphasise among other revisions the following: LEDS GP will build a confident cadre of LEDS practitioners, having defined more clearly who the practitioners are and how to identify their needs; deepening the impact of select priority areas across Regional Platforms and Working Groups, without losing the networking ability of the Partnership; clarifying outcomes and performance metrics, particularly around the use and application of knowledge products and learning, and capacity development activities facilitated by LEDS GP; and the expanding role of LEDS GP to capture and share learning from other institutional programs and networks.

Read a full summary report of the event here.