At the 58th Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council, the largest share of resources programmed to FAO was approved in the June 2020 Work Programme. This included two large projects in Guinea (USD 10 million) and Kenya (USD 6 million) under the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Programme (IP), which were developed with support from the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM). With the addition of the Madagascar project at the 59th GEF Council, the Impact Programme is now a USD 345 million programme focusing on promoting sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient food value and supply chains at scale across eight commodities in 28 countries in five continents.

Due to the challenging COVID-19 context and sanitary measures put in place, the official launch meetings of the Project Preparation Phase for both projects took place on Zoom. The specific objectives of these meetings were to:

• present the overall project content and objectives;

• ensure early involvement of national stakeholders in the design process of the full project proposals;

• promote knowledge and information exchange;

• officially launch the preparatory activities for the drafting of the full project documents.

The meeting involved a series of plenary presentations where project partners and relevant stakeholders presented their ongoing programmes and experiences. FAO also presented the projects’ scope and activities to be undertaken with the support of national and international experts, while other partners discussed other ongoing or planned activities that these new projects would support. Breakout sessions were also organized and facilitated by the national experts to initiate the collection of data and information on a variety of topics, such as stakeholder mapping and restoration best practices.

The project in Guinea aims to promote sustainable and comprehensive food systems that are deforestation free and provide ecosystem services, with a particular focus on palm oil productive landscapes. The target landscapes are located in Upper Guinea and Forested Guinea. On 7 and 8 January 2021, an inception meeting took place on Zoom, with around 50 participants from a wide range of stakeholder groups, including government, the private sector and civil society, connecting remotely from Guinea and Rome.

This workshop was a great opportunity to start engaging stakeholders on the development of the full project and get inputs and feedback to ensure that it fits with current national, regional and local priorities. The stakeholders will be consulted throughout the process and a validation workshop of the final draft should happen in May.

The project in Kenya aims to promote sustainable, integrated management of the Mount Elgon landscape in western Kenya through the development of an inclusive, responsible coffee value chain and sustainable staple food production systems. Mount Elgon is of one the main water towers in Kenya and provides substantial socio-economic benefits and ecosystem services to the neighbouring communities.  On 9 and 10 February 2021, a virtual inception meeting was attended by around 50 participants from a wide range of stakeholders, including government, the private sector, civil society, academia and development partners, connecting remotely from Kenya and Rome.

The participants commended FAO for bringing together all relevant stakeholders at the beginning of the project development stage to ensure a fully participative approach. It was a unique opportunity to gather information on baseline initiatives and projects and discuss major challenges to the promotion of sustainable and inclusive food systems through integrated landscape planning and restoration. It also set the stage for the national design team to engage with project stakeholders and start preparing for County consultations and local field missions. A final draft document should be available for validation in July 2021.

For more information contact us at: [email protected].

Benjamin De Ridder (FAO) and Mathilde Iweins (FAO)