The Restoration Initiative (TRI), is a Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded programme that brings together three agencies – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It includes ten different countries from Asia and Africa and sets out to significantly contribute to restoring ecosystem functions and improving livelihoods by investing in degraded and deforested landscapes, in support of the Bonn Challenge, and in response to the needs of countries.

TRI global project interventions are focused on four key areas in each partnering country:

• Policy development and integration;
• Implementation of restoration programmes and complementary initiatives;
• Capacity building and finance mobilisation;
• Knowledge sharing, partnerships, monitoring and assessment.

Between 11-15 of February 2019, the first Annual Knowledge Sharing and Planning Workshop of TRI Global Programme was held in Naivasha, Kenya. This was the first opportunity to gather partners from all ten countries and the three implementing agencies together to plan the different support workstreams most helpful to national projects.

On the first day, the TRI global programme presented overall objectives, approaches and coordination actions to the countries. During an interactive poster session, common themes, challenges, and potential areas for knowledge exchanges between countries were identified, and the countries presented their national project objectives and planned activities.

The second day was dedicated to the presentation of the TRI Global Child workstreams on; i) Policy development and integration, led by IUCN; ii) Capture and dissemination of best practices and institutional capacity building, led by FAO; and iii) Mobilizing domestic and external funding for large-scale restoration, led by UNEP. All national project teams welcomed the technical assistance facility presented by FAO’s Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism to provide additional international expertise to support the implementation of planned national interventions. Also, the floor was given to countries to express their needs individually in terms of capacity development and they all requested and appreciated the mentioned support to organize knowledge exchanges through regional workshops or South-South Cooperation (SSC) exchange visits.

One day was dedicated to the workstream on knowledge, partnerships, monitoring and assessment. During this session agencies presented GEF reporting requirements and a harmonized Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework, including the nine selected core indicators that all country projects will be requested to measure. The indicators’ definition and reporting needs generated an animated discussion and agencies took note of countries’ concerns and suggestions. Part of the day was dedicated to communications: countries and agencies discussed the needs, short-term priorities and approaches. It was also decided to set up a network of communicators to facilitate the process.

On the final day, participants gathered for a field visit where they interacted with key beneficiaries – including farmers and members of the Water Resource Users Association (WRUA) – on the impact of two different projects implemented by WWF/CARE and WWF/KFS. At the Geta Forest, a representative from KFS explained the process of the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (PELIS), and participants showed a keen interest and asked many practical questions. At the next site, participants witnessed the impact of the Payment for Ecosystem Services scheme introduced by WWF and CARE in 2010 in the Lake Naivasha basin through interactions with one of the first beneficiary farmers that received support in terms of improved agricultural practices (conservation agriculture, fruit trees and napier grass plantations).

Overall, country partners were very engaged and interactive, and having them all together was very important in order to build a firm foundation for partnership and success.

For more information contact: [email protected] or click here.

Carolina GalloGranizo (FAO)