World Bank Group Forest Action Plan FY16-20: The WBG contribution to the forest agenda
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Carole Megevand, Global Lead on Forest, World Bank
Meeting with CSOs
- Forest Action Plan launched last week
- 2002 forest strategy remains valid, not reviewing or changing, consensus that the pillars are valid – more to move into operationalisation, how to implement the pillars
- reflect on new challenges and opportunities, lot going on eg NY declaration, SDGs, Paris Agreement – grounding in this new context
- alignment with the WBG goals – strategy came before – as well as new structure of WB
- reduce poverty, create jobs and wealth, sustain economies
- tell the stories how forests are important
- Traditional way at looking at forestry, sustainable management, supporting clients, to support livelihoods, jobs, preserve ecosystem services
- Cross over with other sectors, such as infrastructure, agriculture, energy, mining transport
- Look at other sectors that can adversely impact or benefit from forests
Q re FAP vs Climate Action Plan
- action plans went to CODE at the same time, important to complement – worked together on overlap
- same entry points and targets, eg more on readiness
- also interaction w other sectors
- initial reduction programme, figure by 2020 in both
Q re rights agenda
- how closely working with colleagues working on the land agenda
- working together in some cases, using a tool re land governance – eg to reform the operations in Colombia but also used in other countries
- good visibility, also demand outside of the land team to help design operations
Q re follow up on criticism in IEG report, eg re poverty impacts and on industrial logging, in particular as 2002 strategy still stands
- IEG report criticism more about implementation,
- Poverty reduction, weakness also M&E, how to monitor – have tried to work a lot on this, also clarify how poverty contribute to poverty alleviation – need to work on this, need to do more on this
- Ambitious serious analytical work, 3m dollar activity, coordination of universities, next 2 years linkages forest and poverty, how to maximise benefits to the poor
- Monitoring, criticised by IEG no evidence of the impact – unable to monitor the impacts, one recommendation to try to identify indicators beyond the life time of the project, predict potential future impact – predictive proxy indicators, have worked on this – have a working paper on this, long term impacts
- Better equipped now, will see how robust they are, and fine tune – so that we can report also for the future
- Industrial logging, generated a lot of discussion, recommendation from IEG was rejected by management – they confirmed that there was a way for the WB to continue to be involved in industrial logging activity, but prior assessment of soc & env impact, also worked on env & soc guidance that needs to be used before any engagement
- Management didn’t want us to bank, but in full knowledge on env & soc impacts
Q on additional assessment: no evidence that projects on assessments, not a call to ban activities, but a need for additional assessments that the activities are generating results – on projects in the past to generate results for the poor to learn lessons for the future
- agree with IEG that the monitoring and indicators were not very strong, trying to strengthen monitoring system, including PPI, impact evaluation
- weaknesses identified, would like to strengthen
Q forest strategy, are there some kind of safeguards already in place in countries to ensure implementation will be different this time, eg the problems of rights in regards to poverty
- will apply the safeguards in place for WB operations, no specific for forestry section
- will be transitioning to the new framework when ready
- country needs are very different so will need to adjust to specific needs of the country
- don’t want to be too prescriptive, demand driven, need to come from the countries
- we have a menu that will guide the discussion with the country, but demand driven – need to identify their priorities
- can’t work on land right issues if no demand from the client, understanding of the political economy, etc, important to understand the context
Q how the new safeguards framework will interact with this, references to how it will work with it, but CSOs have concerns – no clear guidance on when you need to use the safeguards – could there be a guidance to ensure forest concerns are taken into account, to ensure impacts aren’t missed
- safeguards at the operational level, analysis before operations level, to influence how operations are implemented and so on
- different countries might need different things
- upstream analysis – not about safeguards, that’s more from the operations side
- have discussed with safeguards colleagues, natural habitats covers forests even if not specifically mentioned
- don’t’ want to wait for the level of the project, there is a need for infrastructure eg in DRC, want to be able to influence eg road vs river, what are the trade offs, financial implications
Q for implementation, the value of forests and accounting for this, eg re depletion of natural capital vs growth rate – how will it work with the WAVES programme or similar, re the private sector
- need to better value the forest
- poor decisions have been taken because the value has not been known
- WAVES will be used as part of country notes, dollar signs is what is most important at the country level
- WAVES also working on the global level, for better indicators for forests
Q country forest notes, what do they consist of, what type of information, and how would they influence CPF on a country level, are there priority countries? Would it include increasing capacity?
- type of information, we are working on this now, 6-8 country notes together with the climate change team, so already strong involvement with the climate funds
- want to star with countries where we already have a grasp of the challenges, have data – first wave of countries
- the notes should inform some decision points, such as SCDs
- need to be realistic as well, don’t want to prepare 40 country notes if not right, going slowly
- bit question how we manage staff, don’t always have to send someone to prepare, as staff can be competent
- if sectoral and safeguards combined could justify having a person
Q Oxfam work on IFC and FIs, mentioned whole WBG will be involved – research on IFCs work through FIs released tomorrow, being more hands off, less control of what the money is going – how can the FAP deliver results if removed, and what capacity is there to monitor
- discussed this specifically, raised with CSOs and stakeholders, but IFC said standards apply across the board, but that this could maybe be strengthened
- interested in research
Q regarding budget to implement action plan, eg also through IDA18
Q countries mentioned in FAP are generally those with capacity, how will the forest team engage with other countries eg IDA
- re the budget, no specific targets, as demand driven, so can’t anticipate what the appetite will be
- re WB budget, have a pool of experts with experience of forests, also in agriculture, water, mining, climate – need to work as a team across GPs
- IDA18, have no info apart from heard from BIC re lobby for the inclusion of forests
- Need to understand the context of the country, to have the operation that would impact the most, will depend from one country to another
- The programmatic approach means will not have a one size fits all, need to be flexible – want to take advantage of the different funds around, for policy dialogue, technical assistance, etc
Q re climate screening, could you share the list of countries
- learning curve for country notes, will see how it works, and how useful for country directors and minister of finance
- list: Vietnam, Laos, Mozambique, DRC, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico – preliminary, may change
Q re IDA18, would be good to have forest team involved in discussion, makes sense to be mentioned in the IDA replenishment cycle
- OK
Implementing the Forest Action Plan
- country note one vehicle to inform the discussion on strategic level, upstream analysis and planning
- operational level, programmatic approach – bring together the different sources of financing in different countries, piloted in a few countries, trying to align the different systems
- strengthen monitoring systems – needed to strengthen our capacity, also want to work on the country systems
- strengthen knowledge and evidence base – also how to use the knowledge generated, how to capture and disseminate, community of practice
- streamline institutional arrangements and procedures – working as a team and build on expertise available within the WB, initiate dialogue with different trust funds, how to harmonise procedure, most donors are the same
- partnerships – we are still a small player in the forestry sector, on average 400m dollars per year, but needs 70 – 100 billion, need to work in partnerships and leverage other sources
Q the indicators in the annex, core plus additional indicators and ‘forest-smart’ indicators – how will this be monitored and reported on, timeline, process. Deforestation not included on project level, will that be ramped up
- identified a few elements to work on, easy steps.
- Had different indicators before, difficult to see impact at portfolio level
- Proxy indicators, guidance to the team on how to use – some can be clustered, are CSIs
- Review of progress made on implementation during FY18
- It won’t just be these indicators on a project level
- Deforestation, about understanding the indirect impacts – working on tools to better understand, eg re infrastructure
- Good discussion with transport and energy (hydropower etc) – fully committed but needs tools
Q IDB are also working on this, are you talking to them
- on infrastructure, my colleague is working with IDB on general environmental impacts, so could have a dialogue
