Please Download the Report of the Second Steering Committee (SC) Meeting

On 22 March 2013, the Hotel Résidence la Falaise in Douala-Cameroon, hosted the 2nd Steering Committee (SC) meeting of the Project to support the Expanded Natural Resource Management Training Programme in the Congo Basin (PEFOGRN-BC).

The agenda of this important meeting, which brought together 31 participants, including 10 members of the SC, 17 Observers and 5 resource persons, all representatives of professional training institutions from COMIFAC countries, the University of Laval and from CBFP, featured eight (8) items aimed at assessing the progress status of the project in the Congo Basin.  

The tone of the meeting was set by Mr Monsieur TADOM MARTIN, Executive Secretary of COMIFAC who delivered a welcome address in which he revisited the context of the implementation of the project with regards to the COMIFAC convergence plan, which has entered into the 4th component of its 7th strategic thrust.

Thereafter, the reading of the minutes of the 1st Steering Committee meeting and the 2nd Project Monitoring Technical Committee (PSAP) meeting allowed participants to assess the level of implementation of the project and to make recommendations for greater efficiency at the level of the CEP (Project Implementation Committee) and beneficiary institutions.

The following recommendations were put to the CEP:

♦ Prepare a strategy document and communication media to ease networking between member institutions and ensure project visibility

♦ Develop frameworks or guides for various grant requests submitted to the project by beneficiary institutions

♦ Develop a label and strategy for the certification of the Congo Basin forest and environmental review

♦ Improve the rate of consumption of the budget.

The following recommendations were made to the Beneficiary Institutions:

♦ Enhance the stability of focal points which are the lynchpin and whose task among others is to implement RIFFEAC’s activities at the level of the BIs and ensure that they have the basic equipment required to work.  They will be evaluated periodically based on their TOR.

♦ BI officials should work harder and respond faster in order to meet project implementation schedules.

With these recommendations, the Chairman of the SC thanked the participants for their contribution in hopes of meeting them again at the next steering committee meeting.