Baguio City, Philippines - The World Bank conducted a project implementation supervision mission on the project entitled “Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Capacity Building Project (CBP) on REDD+ for Forest-Dependent Indigenous Peoples in East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) and South Asia Region (SAR)” in Baguio City, Philippines on July 10-12, 2017.
The objectives of the mission were: (i) to evaluate progress made towards the achievement of the project development objectives, in particular the advancement of the national-level REDD+ capacity building program, and provide support as needed; (ii) to evaluate the performance of Tebtebba as the implementing agency, including compliance with procurement and financial procedures, maintenance and use of the project’s Grievance Redress Mechanism, and the effectiveness of the monitoring and evaluation system, and provide support as needed; and (iii) discuss options for scaling up the impact of the project using additional financing recently made available by the FCPF Participants Committee.
The mission focused on work sessions with members of the Management Committee and the project management team (PMT) in Tebtebba, which is the recipient and implementing organization of the project. According to the PMT, out of the six (6) targeted sub-projects to implement national capacity building activities in FCPF eligible countries in the region, four (4) has been approved. The four approved project proposals come from Fiji, Vietnam and two from Bhutan.
The other country proposals such as that from Papua New Guinea is still being revised by the proponent in accordance with Tebtebba’s comments while, the proponent organization in Vanuatu was found out to be ineligible during the due diligence and a replacement was identified with the assistance of the World Bank during the mission. Meanwhile, Pakistan was removed from benefiting in national capacity building activities per advise of the World Bank.
The PMT added that the research on “Customary tenure systems and REDD+: Ensuring benefits for Indigenous Peoples” commenced in the last week of June 2017 to be reported by December this year and published by March 2018. The study will try to understand the interplay between customary tenure systems and REDD+ in order to ensure benefits of indigenous peoples from REDD+.
While the mission found out that Tebtebba is complying with the agreed procedures on procurement and financial covenants, there are minor lapses on documentation and low grant utilization that need strengthening and close monitoring. World Bank has also encouraged Tebtebba to monitor the project activities closely and to fast track implementation.
The mission was led by Haddy Jatou Sey (Task Team Leader and Senior Social Development Specialist) and composed of Rene SD Manuel (Senior Procurement Specialist), Maria Liennefer Rey Penaroyo (Financial Management Specialist) and Ayala Peled Ben Ari (Operations Specialist, Consultant). The mission was hosted by the Project Management Team and members of the Management Committee of Tebtebba.