This dialogue aims to bring together international and regional experts in the field of green growth with key stakeholders from the public and private sector in the GMS, to take stock and scale up. What progress has been made so far, what are the emerging investment opportunities and risks? What actions can further improve the investment climate including through public-private partnerships? How can emerging sustainable development opportunities be unlocked? The dialogue will create an opportunity for stakeholders to explore the emerging triple bottom line (people, profit, planet) opportunities in natural wealth management, share lessons learned and increase their knowledge on options for benefiting from the green economy, and learn how public/private cooperation can create enabling conditions to encourage investments into sustainable land management operations and promote green economic development. 

The overall objective of the dialogue is for participants from public and private sector to explore emerging opportunities in natural wealth management that are arising in the context of the green economy, and in turn catalyse a dialogue on enabling conditions for sustainable natural wealth management that promotes green economic development.

More specifically the event will:

• Showcase examples of successful responsible investments in natural resource intensive operations in order for public and private stakeholders to recognize the many opportunities available from natural wealth management;
• Allow public and private stakeholder to discuss how to scale up successful operations by adopting green technologies, using innovative financial solutions and establishing a conducive investment climate;
• Launch a public private platform for continuous dialogue on investment opportunities and enabling conditions; and
• With a smaller group of technical participants, present and discuss some of the leading approaches, methodologies and tools that can support decision-making on green economy investments with the aim to increase capacity and knowledge about these opportunities.

The expected outcome for participants will be:

• increased their knowledge on options for benefiting from emerging triple bottom line opportunities in natural wealth management and the green economy;
• had the opportunity to linking up with the appropriate stakeholder groups and information and have a better understanding of how public /private cooperation can create enabling conditions to upscale investment into SLM and promote green economic development; and
• a better understanding the tools, technologies, incentives and finance that are available and/or needed to upscale profitable investments in natural wealth management.

The workshop will gather approximately 80 participants among which at least 50 will be from the six countries in the Mekong region – Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Invitations will been sent to stakeholders having a key role to play in the sustainable management of the natural capital and in the transition to a green economy:

• High level government officials including representatives from the ministries of finance, relevant line ministries, the UNCCD focal point institutions – the ones that can bring the issues discussed to their governments and put in place the enabling conditions for up-scaling the green economy;
• Actors in the business and financing sectors that see the opportunities in investing in green technologies and practices and wants to engage with policy makers, the scientific community and CSOs to upscale their businesses.
• Key NGOs– who can advocate for the issues discussed and have the power to make changes from business as usual;
• ‘Practitioners’ involved in the day-to-day development, application, monitoring and implementation of GE-related activities “on the ground” such as representatives from the business, financial, investment, and scientific communities, as well as government officials; and
• Donors, cooperating partners, media and other interested organizations will also be invited.

The consultation will be divided into two parts:

The first part will discuss options for transitioning to a green economy. High level government officials, development partners and private investors and business leaders across all land use sectors will participate. An overview of green economy in the GMS region will be given, as well as examples of public and private triple bottom line investments and business practices and innovative financing opportunities and technologies. Options for scaling up success stories and investment opportunities will be explored. The session will present some of the great opportunities that lie in conserving natural wealth for the private as well as the public sector, and will deepen the participants’ understanding of how public-private partnerships and the right enabling conditions can make it happen. The dialogue will prepare the participants to become advocates and facilitators of change, and provide a forum for sharing lessons and experiences as well as for building networks of expertise.

The second part will provide a more technical and detailed overview of some of the leading approaches, methodologies and tools that can support public and private decision-making on GE investments in the GMS. Participants will include representatives from the business, financial, investment, and scientific communities, as well as government officials involved in the day-to-day development, application, monitoring and implementation of GE-related activities “on the ground”. Experts will showcase examples of projects, tools and applications that enable and support a green growth in the GMS region, as well as case studies from other regions. Participants will have the opportunity to raise methodological questions and participate in practical exercise to share and increase their knowledge of tools and approaches that can promote and benefit a green economy.