GRID-Arendal: Strategic Plan 2018-2021

To achieve this goal, GRID-Arendal will work with communities – incorporating indigenous and other knowledge systems – to produce better resource management solutions that combine environmental sustainability with social equity, inclusiveness and human well-being. We will contribute to management frameworks that embrace gender equality, a rights-based approach, empowering stakeholders and aiming to leave no-one behind, management frameworks that are far more likely to succeed in the long run.

To achieve this goal our projects systematically incorporate results based management, risk assessment, monitoring and evaluation to ensure impacts are quantified, and that outputs are relevant to target audiences. In order to achieve greater visibility GRID-Arendal will contribute to national and international forums and engage in public debates.

Building the GRID-Arendal work environment

Goal 4 – GRID-Arendal is seen as a desirable workplace

Expanding GRID-Arendal’s impact

Our staff come from many disciplines, cultures and nationalities. The global composition of our staff, combined with its diverse knowledge and professionalism, are of great value to GRID-Arendal. Our aim is to become even more successful as a desirable workplace with staff of all age groups who feel valued and fulfilled in the work they do and satisfied with their working environment. To achieve this goal GRID-Arendal will continue to develop projects that make best use of our staff´s knowledge and capabilities. GRID-Arendal will continue to provide opportunities for staff development. Recruitment by GRID- Arendal will continue to strive for diversity. The 1987 Brundtland Report defined sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This quotation is as relevant today as when GRID- Arendal was founded as a response to the Brundtland Commission. The commission’s report pointed to the need for joint action to tackle our collective problems in a just and equitable manner. More than a quarter of a century later, in times where social media seem to increasingly make (or fake) “news”, GRID-Arendal still works tirelessly towards this goal by providing sound scientific environmental knowledge for change to influence policy and to facilitate the implementation and the achievements of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, United Nations Environmental Assembly resolutions and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals remind us that the key to our survival is to realize that there can be no development and little security in a world where the three pillars of sustainable development – society, environment and economy – are not considered together. We at GRID-Arendal passionately believe that we can keep pushing the decision-makers and ourselves to make that difference. And this is not just a goal for 2020 or 2030 – it is something we aim for now and every day!

Goal 3 – GRID-Arendal is seen as a valued partner

GRID-Arendal will continue to be a visible, valued and financially stable organisation, able to quickly respond to emerging issues and develop new, or strengthen existing, partnerships. GRID-Arendal recognizes that all sectors of society can contribute solutions to help solve environmental problems. The broad character and scope of projects we undertake allows us to network and operate across multiple disciplines while working with a diverse range of partners and stakeholders.

Historical background

The founders of GRID-Arendal participated in the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil over a quarter century ago. While other countries tabled heavy reports on their

environmental status, GRID-Arendal presented Norway as the world’s first country to produce a digital state of the environmental report – on four floppy disks! Technology has advanced so quickly since 1992 that most people born since then do not even know what a floppy disk is. However, it is a

willingness to think out-of-the-box and use state-of- the-art communications, combined with a passionate commitment to the environment, that has shaped GRID- Arendal and created its successes. Our planet might have been a better home to today’s young people and future generations if the recommendations in the Brundtland Commission’s report – that greatly influenced the Rio meeting – had been followed. Nevertheless, the Earth Summit resulted in some key documents (e.g. Agenda 21) and in the opening for signature of some important and legally binding agreements (the Convention on Biodiversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change).