CiR2P Option 42 | Maximise local leadership

DISCUSSION:

A climate-informed multilateral nation-building mission must hand over authority to internal actors and depart the field as soon as functionally possible, doing so will help avoid a build-up of neo-colonial resentment, and inertia and resistance in the local population. In addition, nation-building that is almost exclusively externally driven is unsustainable over the longer-term, both politically and economically.

Ultimately, the exercise of authority, and the responsibility taken for those decisions, is for the local population to contend with.

However, not overstaying one’s welcome should be balanced with the overarching need, and purpose of the rebuilding mission in the first place, to embed a variety of properly functioning, effective and durable civilian protection programs in the society and economy.

Effective and durable solutions require, above all, inclusive decision-making processes that work to empower domestic actors.

Climate action programs that adopt this approach include:

• community-based adaptation programs,
• a variety of climate governance programs,
• climate aid programs (eg. those under the UK’s ‘new conditionality’),
• various social programs for climate action (eg. education, training and women),

Western nations should seek to design climate-informed nation-building programs that are guided by the principle of ‘maximising local ownership’.

Programs that include and empower domestic actors at a national, subnational and community level are more likely to be managed sustainably over the longer-term and therefore contribute in a meaningful way to delivering on the mission agenda.

However, this does not mean that oversight, safeguards (ie funding) and assurances should be removed.