OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance THEMATIC BROCHURES Series The main objective of the OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance is to support the work of partnerships through guidance on both policy and practice. The Forum Thematic Brochures series review the experience of partnerships in different countries focusing on regional economic development, employment and skills, social inclusion and addressing the implications of climate change. On each of these themes, partnership organisations which are members of the Forum have shared their approaches, strategies and results. This knowledge and practical experience provided an essential part of the material for the preparation of this brochure.

This document aims to identify some of the key features of examples of partnerships dealing with environmental issues, outline good practice, and indicate where policies might develop from here. The examples are not limited to formal partnership agreements, but also include regional/local initiatives of the same kind. In particular, they highlight:
• Strategies focusing on regional economic development, on employment and skills and on social inclusion. Environment is thus an issue that cuts across the other major issues relevant to partnership work.
• Programmes of work and activities;
• Partners and structures;
• Financial resources: as environment partnerships have rather different agreements and purposes in the wider sense, funding may come from a variety of actors, depending on their main partners and the interest groups involved. There are examples of public funding, public-private funding, and of donor-sponsored initiatives.

This document has also benefited from the work carried out by the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development Programme on this topic, notably through its cross-country comparative project on “Climate Change, Employment and Local Development”.