Appendix: Setting up a stakeholder-led collaborative project

We suggest that public agencies look at our 2016 report, Principles for effectively co-governing natural resources, and guidance for collaborative projects on the Ministry for the Environment's website. The following questions are also useful to consider:

Does this project have achievable and measurable outcomes?

• What are the important issues this project needs to address?
• Are there financial, legislative, and regulatory boundaries the collaborative working group will need to work within? Is economic analysis of the proposals needed?
• Have you set a time frame that is adequate?

What governance or co-governance structures does this project need?

• Are roles, responsibilities, accountabilities for the agencies and the project groups, including co-governance groups, clear? Are leadership roles clearly defined?
• How will the groups communicate with each other?

How will the people participating in the project collaborate?

• How do you expect representatives of the working group/s to engage with their interest groups? Have you communicated this to them?
• How will you support representatives of the working group to participate in the project?

How will you, and any of the other agencies involved in the project, provide effective input to the collaborative stakeholder group?

• What can you learn from collaborative projects that have been done before?
• What resourcing is needed (for example, project support or scientific information)?
• Do you have related work that could help inform, or be integrated with, the project?
• Who will monitor and evaluate the project?

How will you keep the community and interested stakeholders informed about the project during and after the project's completion?

How will you, and any of the other agencies involved, plan to implement the project?

• How will you review the plan and work with any of the other agencies to implement it?

Questions to ask local and central government agencies

Before participating in a collaborative working group, it could be useful for people to ask the following questions:

• What time frame and resources will you give us to run the collaborative project? Are you confident that this is sufficient to collate all the scientific information that is needed to complete the project?
• Are the relevant Ministers supportive of this project?
• Who has autonomy and responsibility for the plan?
• To what extent do you expect to communicate with other interested people, such as the wider community or interest groups?
• How will you and we work with the community?
• How will the community's views be properly taken into account?
• What input will agencies have in implementation after the plan is completed?
• How have you committed to implementing the plan we produce? Do you have a time frame for implementation?