Multistakeholder Dialogues (MSDs) are being used as part of many international policy-making efforts. Official and unofficial representatives are being brought together to build relationships, set agendas for future official and unofficial dialogues, and even to generate packages of proposals or recommendations. The authors describe the key challenges that face prospective MSD designers, including: finding the right participants, managing with extremely limited financial resources, providing effective meeting facilitation, and integrating the work of MSDs into existing institutional activities and structures. While there are examples of successful MSDs that contribute to official policymaking, too many multistakeholder dialogues founder because the participants are inadequately prepared, the processes are managed ineffectively, and expectations are unrealistic.
