CHALLENGE

Key features of good governance include adherence to the rule of law, transparency, inputs of all stakeholders in decision-making, accountability of all officials, low regulatory burden, and political stability. While it is widely agreed that good governance in the forest sector is an essential requirement for sustainable forest management, there is much less agreement on what comprises good forest governance and how to distinguish good from poor forest governance. Nevertheless, recent years have seen careful research and serious thinking on these issues, which has moved the international community of practice to a point of relatively robust agreement regarding the scope of what constitutes good forest governance and how to measure the quality of forest governance in a specific setting. However, the challenge that the international community faces is that the knowledge on the what of forest governance has not been widely and effectively disseminated, nor has the how of forest governance been piloted and implemented as extensively as the expected benefits to such application would merit. Without such a consolidated information base, countries are hampered in their ability to undertake steps to apply good governance and assessments to achieving sustainable forest management (SFM). This activity seeks to address these shortcoming.

APPROACH

The activities included in this program are organized under two pillars:

(i) Dissemination, knowledge sharing and skills enhancement:

• Translation of the 2014 publication of Assessing Forest Governance: A Practical Guide to Data Collection, Analysis, and Use, also called the “Assessment Guide,” into Spanish and French. This Assessment Guide will provide the foundation in which to develop the other listed products.
• Webinars
• E-learning course
• Bite-sized learning products (blogs, podcasts)
• Outreach (e.g. international conferences)

(ii) Initiating and improving action in countries: The team will support advanced country-specific training and implementation of measurement approaches that empower countries to embed forest governance in operations, improving their effectiveness and creating additional investment opportunities in the sector. 

RESULTS

This activity has been completed. Results include the following:

Pillar I Activities: Dissemination, Knowledge-Sharing, and Skills-Enhancement

1. Assessment Guide in Spanish available in print and e-format.

2. Three webinars were delivered between Jan-March 2015 (with the support of the Leadership, Learning and Innovation (LLI) group of the World Bank) and can be downloaded at the following links:
- An Introduction to the What, Why and How of Forest Governance Assessment
- Doing a Forest Governance Assessment—Practical Tips and Tricks
- Using a Forest Governance Assessment—From Diagnosis to Action

3. Three podcasts were produced (based on the above 3 webinars):

An introduction to the What, Why and How of forest governance assessment

Using a forest governance assessment—From diagnosis to action

Doing a forest governance assessment—Practical tips and tricks

4. A facilitated e-learning course on forest governance developed with LLI support. This is a five module course with 4 completed deliveries and a fifth on-going.

5. Presentation of the Assessment Guide at Interlaken+10—Governing Forest Landscapes, Feb. 6, 2015, Interlaken, Switzerland.

6. A discussion session on forest governance and ways forward at the World Forestry Congress at Durban, in September 2015.

7. FCPF presentation at Steering Committee meeting on Forest Governance, in April, 2016.

8. Assessment Guide in French available in print and e-format.

9. Organized a role playing exercise- Scoring Forest Governance Indicators- for FIP country teams to learn about PROFOR’s forest governance monitoring and assessment tool, at the FIP Pilot Countries Meeting, Oaxaca, Mexico, June 12-14, 2016.

10. Mainstreamed the governance diagnostic tool as a resource in the Forest Landscapes 101 e-learning course.

Pillar II Activities: Initiating and Improving Action in Countries

1. In Congo DRC, the PROFOR supported diagnostic exercise reached out to a non-traditional stakeholder group—the artisanal loggers in the informal sector. Their opinions were systematically gathered through an interactive process, in four sub-regional workshops. Each workshop included 10-25% women as participants.  The challenges which they face and potential actions to address those, was presented in a report to the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. The DRC assessment on forest governance has also informed a World Bank piece of Economic and Sector Work that is taking stock of the DRC’s forest sector and its governance, and which will guide the Bank’s future interventions in the sector.

2. In Mozambique, implemented a forest governance diagnostics exercise. The activity customized a forest governance indicator set. It then used this indicator set in two field workshops to systematically gather information from multiple forest sector stakeholders. The findings and emerging implications were channeled into the Forest Investment Program (FIP) project for the country and have significantly shaped the actions geared to improving governance for Mozambique. Equally important, the diagnostic exercise has identified a handful of priority indicators that the government and the FIP project can use for periodic assessments of the status of forest governance.

3. In Congo RDC, supported a preliminary governance assessment. With the support of the government, a preliminary, forest governance assessment was implemented, using PROFOR’s forest governance diagnostic framework. A long background paper was prepared, based on the assessment. In addition, a short note was prepared for inclusion in the country’s ASA’s Umbrella Policy Note.  The work provides a first overview of governance in the sector, a subject into which the Bank has so far paid only limited attention, and forms the basis for future detailed work.

4. In Afghanistan, PROFOR helped the South Asia Environmental Practice Group adapt the PROFOR forest governance diagnostic into an institutional and technical capacity diagnostic. Afghanistan applied the tool in Kabul in May 2017 as part of an ESW, “Capacity Development for Natural Resource Management". The Government enthusiastically embraced the exercise and now wants to conduct assessments at the provincial level throughout the country. This use has demonstrated the versatility of the  FAO–PROFOR governance framework to address resource management issues, beyond just forestry. 

Other Activities

1. Undertook a partner-led evaluation (under the KNOWFOR initiative of DFID) of the impacts of the DRC and Mozambique forest governance diagnostic exercises, and the e-learning course.

2. Developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Governance GP that has resulted in a new programmatic activity on governance.