From July 31 to August 1, 2014, the city of Douala hosted the fifth meeting of the steering committee of the project to build institutional capacity for REDD + with a view to sustainable management of Congo Basin forests. It was chaired by Mr. Rémy MUKONGO SHABANTU, representative of the ECCAS Secretary General.

The target for participants in this SC was to review achievements of the project during the first half of 2014 and propose new guidelines that would lead to innovations in assistance provide to COMIFAC countries to enhance their contribution to climate change debates, and also bolster reflection at the local level on REDD+-related issues. To this end, participants assessed the level of implementation of recommendations of the last steering committee and project achievements during the first half of 2014. The participants also showed keen interest in various presentations which focused on the guidelines and checklist proposed in the 2013 EESR and audit reports, tender documents, the IDA supervisory mission report, mid-term review mission report, information sharing on the next GTC and priority activities for the next semester.

With virtually all the project recommendations already executed, the few still pending were included among the priority areas of focus for future efforts. It was also noted that 35.19% of activities planned for the year had been completed, with a disbursement rate of 22% by July 30, 2014, compared with the same period in 2013, where the rates stood at 30 % and 12.26%.

While commending the quality of work done by the project team, the participants encouraged the project implementation team to ensure closer monitoring by presenting a progress monitoring table to the IDA once in two weeks, produce multiple copies of the EESR report and distribute it to PSC (Project Steering Committee)  members, forward the TORs for the mid-term review mission to PSC members two weeks ahead of the scheduled date and seek funding for participation of SESA officials, including civil society in the GTC workshop slated to hold in September.

Regarding the fourth PSC meeting, the project team was encouraged to sign the amended decision instituting the REDD + project steering committee and organize a regional workshop to ensure ownership of the monitoring and evaluation manual.

The meeting culminated with closing remarks by the representative of the ECCAS SG in which he did fail to laud the quality of work done and encourage various focal points to get more involved in implementation activities to ensure better results.

For more details, please read the report below: