Resources
131 Resources found
-
![]()
To Stay or Go: New Insights on Managed Retreat
CBI Senior Mediator Carri Hulet shares insights on managed retreat, or relocation due to climate change, while at a recent conference at Columbia University focused on this topic. After CBI launched the Climigration Network in 2015 to encourage conversation among a small number of people who were then exploring managed retreat, Carri was pleased to witness hundreds of people at the conference discussing and innovating around retreat strategies. In this article, Carri reflects on the evolution of the climigration field of practice, recent progress, and how to grapple with the complicated emotions that accompany this challenging issue – for herself as well as millions of residents who are facing tough decisions about whether to stay or go, and how to go if that is the choice.
-
![]()
Breakthrough Collaboration: What is It and How Do We Help Make It Happen?
CBI’s vision is a world in which the most complex problems are solved through collaboration. In this era of high polarization on pressing public issues, creating strong partnerships to meet public challenges is more urgent, and more difficult. At CBI, we have been discussing the need for what we are calling "breakthrough collaboration" to help groups and organizations work together in situations where trust is low and there is no shared vision, yet the stakeholders know they need to work together over the long haul to tackle the challenge at hand. In this article, Managing Director David Fairman and Associate Managing Director Stacie Smith present CBI’s preliminary thinking on what it takes to advance breakthrough collaboration, and how the key ingredients can be blended to create sustainable solutions to seemingly intractable problems. We welcome your input as we continue to explore what it takes to achieve breakthrough collaboration!
-
![]()
The United Nations, Land and Conflict: Developing a New Approach
In humanitarian crises and post-conflict environments across the globe, land – a scarce and valuable resource – can be a flash point for reigniting conflict, compromising economic recovery and undermining peace. In recent years, member states and United Nations (UN) leaders expressed concerns that land issues in conflict situations were not getting enough attention, and launched a “re-think” on how the UN engages around land and conflict. The UN retained Michael Brown (now Senior Mediator at CBI) to build consensus for a major initiative to develop a new systemwide approach to land and conflict. Michael facilitated agreement and buy-in across 18 different UN agencies and supported drafting of the new approach, resulting in The United Nations and Land and Conflict Secretary General’s Note, an important document that articulates a shared vision and approach for UN staff and national stakeholders, released in March 2019.
-
![]()
Past as Present: Facilitating Collaborative Processes with Those Historically Wronged
How do fundamental issues of identity, justice, and power affect the facilitation of dialogue with groups that include individuals who have experienced injustice? How does one’s own identity as a facilitator affect the ability to remain neutral and help these groups address challenges? Managing Director Pat Field reflects on lessons learned from engagements over his 25 years as a facilitator and mediator.
-
![]()
Collaboration and Offshore Wind Development
Offshore wind development is rapidly accelerating in U.S waters – and diverse new and traditional users, and their interests, need to be balanced. Senior Mediator Bennett Brooks and Managing Director Patrick Field suggest that processes must accommodate substantial uncertainty as agencies, stakeholders, and developers venture into previously uncharted waters. They argue that collaboration among participating agencies and across jurisdictions is key to sustaining cooperation and trust, and avoiding costly and painful conflict as offshore wind development expands.
-
![]()
Common Ground
In the Vina Basin in Northern California, the entire community is 100 percent reliant on groundwater for all water needs. CBI’s Senior Mediator Tania Carlone is helping the basin establish a groundwater sustainability agency and address the central issue of how to design a governance structure that will support the collaborative development of a sustainability plan for a basin where everyone has a stake.
-
![]()
CBI Launched Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative
Core to CBI’s mission is our belief that all who may be affected by a decision should have a voice in the conversation. Including the perspectives of marginalized or underrepresented populations is important morally, and practically, to ensure wise and durable agreements. CBI is engaging in a process to explore how well we are living the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in our organization and in our work. We offer some initial insights about how to thoughtfully undertake a DEI initiative.
-
![]()
Building a National Stakeholder Consensus on "Working Up"
Central to the American Dream is the belief that through education and hard work, each generation can raise its standard of living, and create greater opportunities for the next. But over the past forty years, incomes for lower-wage workers have stagnated, and economic inequality has increased. Education and hard work are no longer a guarantee of upward mobility for lower-wage workers.
-
![]()
Addressing Land and Property Claims Amidst Rubble in Marawi
Facing growing pressure and concern to generate a strategy to address land and property issues in Marawi, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) turned to the Consensus Building Institute. CBI mediators have helped develop systems to manage post-conflict land and property issues in peace processes in Guatemala, Timor Leste, and Sri Lanka.
-
![]()
CBI Helps West Virginia Schools Rebuild After Historic Flooding
It’s hard to find an arena closer to people’s hearts than their schools. In Nicholas County, West Virginia, despite shrinking enrollment and tight budgets, the rival high schools in Richwood and Summersville have served as the centers of civic community life. So it wasn’t surprising that a proposal to consolidate the schools erupted in controversy and intense conflict.
-
![]()
Breaking the Gridlock: A New Path Forward for Congressional Budgeting
CBI and Convergence convened an unusual coalition of budget experts and advocates to brainstorm new ideas to improve managing the U.S. budget.
-
![]()
CBI Works with EITI-Implementing Countries to Strengthen Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration
The global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) turned to CBI for assistance in helping a network of government officials organize into a working coalition.
