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Opportunities and approaches for expanding in-depth processes for private sector and civil society stakeholders are worth exploring further

Although the self-assessment survey suggests a wide recognition of the importance of stakeholder involvement and also considerable practical experience in many countries, it is also fair to conclude that there is still much to be learned on the needs, relevance and opportunities of active involvement. As noted by Few et al. (2007) “[e]xperience in other fields has shown that it is crucial to recognize the subtleties and complexities inherent in efforts to engage the public in decision-making and to avoid simplistic assumptions about the efficacy, transparency and public reach of community involvement processes.” This statement appears to be valid as the self-assessment survey results show limited reporting on the use of active, deep involvement beyond stakeholders from central government. This may partly be due to the fact that the responses to the survey were coordinated from central governments. It may be that the most important opportunities for co-creation and other in-depth forms of involvement are found in adaptation taking place at sub-national levels, outside the direct remits of national level governments. Part of this adaptation may even take place spontaneously without the intervention of government actors (Cannon and Müller-Mahn, 2010) or as bottom-up processes where governments only provide support through funding, for example through regional development funds.