Institutional embeddedness of information sharing on REDD+

A Case from IndonesiaMoira Moeliono, Caleb Gallemore, Maria Brockhaus and Levania Santoso

Rio de Janeiro-19 June 2012

QUESTIONS

How might information drive change in ideas and discourses which in turn drive institutional change or how is information exchange driven by those ideas and discourses?

• Democratization more open information exchange

• REDD+ = a new concept• How effective is the information network on REDD+?

Information = power

Information is the currency of today's world. Those who control information are the most powerful people on the planet –and, 

the ones with the most bulging bank accounts. (Matthew Lesko) 

Network of information, colour by type, size by indegree

Network of information. Nodes scaled by indegree, color denotes type

Closely connected network: >90% of nodes connected within 2 steps of less.Wide distribution of highly central organizational typesProminence of governmnet and large international organizations

Actor Code

Actors Colour

1 Central Government Light Blue

2 Regional Government Blue

3 University/Academia Purple

4 Private Sector Yellow

5 National Civil Society Organizations

Light Green

6 International NGO Lighter Green

7 International  Organizations Lighter Blue

8 Donors Turquoise

9 Participatory Venue Red

PNA Actors Colour Coding

115 actors identified (expert panel); 64 surveyed, 64 semi‐structured interviews 

Information network, reciprocated ties. Nodes scales by Betweenness.  Color denotes type of stakeholder

Nodes w/o ties; 3 components; info exchange stronger within organizations; actor 38 and 54 act as liaison or brokers between groups

Actor Code

Actors Colour

1 Central Government Light Blue

2 Regional Government Blue

3 University/Academia Purple

4 Private Sector Yellow

5 National Civil Society Organizations

Light Green

6 International NGO Lighter Green

7 International  Organizations Lighter Blue

8 Donors Turquoise

9 Participatory Venue Red

PNA Actors Colour Coding

Discussion Information flow is dense, no single actor controls info flow Reciprocal info limited to specialized network  REDD+ at early stage? Or limitation of mandates? Brokers and liaisons Information function of other relationships 

Conclusion• ONE WAY COMMUNICATION: Reciprocal 

information flow is mostly linked to organizational types and functional roles, 

• BOILING IN OWN SOUP: lack of reciprocity be an indicator of stickiness of institutions and resistance to change.

• LIMITED CONTENT ON INFO‐ HIGHWAYS: Directed information flow occurs whenever an opportunity arises but seems to be more aimed at network building for future use rather than actual information exchange

THINKING beyond the canopy

In addition some important issues relevant to efficient information flow not explored in this paper are:

– It is not only the quality and accessibility of information but in the end also the capacity of users. Information requires capacity to become knowledge and knowledge requires capacity to be applied.

– Information can be shared freely but will it be understand and used (as well as mis-used) in many different ways in accordance with capacity but mostly with interests of the different actors.

– the mind set, mental models and beliefs that enable people to share information, to learn, and to ask for it.

THINKING beyond the canopy

Acknowledgements

The here presented research is part of the policy component of CIFOR’s global comparative study (GCS) http://www.forestsclimatechange.org/global‐comparative‐study‐on‐redd.html, led by Maria Brockhaus. 

The methods applied in this study build on work undertaken in COMPON (‘Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks’, http://compon.org/), led by Jeffrey Broadbent and financially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Monica Di Gregorio and Maria Brockhaus adapted the COMPON research ‘Protocol for Policy Network Analysis’.

Special thanks to Riccardo De Vita, Pham Thu Thuy, Efrian Muharrom and the data base team at CIFOR, Sofi Mardiah,  and Christine Wairata.

We gratefully acknowledge the support received from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Australian Agency for International Development, the 

European Commission, and the UK Department for International Development.