Management assessment: Forestry Development Project
KEYWORD: Community-based Natural Forest Management, Asia. Asia, Nepal, community forestry, incentives, conservation, land use, decentralization, forestry department, institutional strengthening, community participation, education, evaluation. SUMMARY: This evaluation identifies problems in implementation of project activities, gives possible solutions, and suggests activities to be undertaken by the Forest Development Project (FDP), a grant agreement between the government of Nepal and USAID. The report also highlights the objectives and priorities of Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MFSC), the role and responsibilities of the Planning Division of MFSC, the progress of the FDP to date, and the financial and human resources available to FDP. Problems were noted in the clarity of the tasks required in the project document, the short-term nature of the project support, and overly centralized technical assistance. Major constraints to the implementation of the FDP include frequent transfers of staff, lack of definition of staff roles, lack of clear project focus and criteria, the top-down planning approach, lack of incentives for field staff, slow rate of hand-over of land to communities, overly-centralized technical assistance, and slow decision-making. The author recommends that planning, budgeting, programming, project analysis, training and rapid technical support receive high priority for improvements. Furthermore the author suggests that priorities be placed on the following, in order of importance: Development and dissemination of methodology for forestry development plans; Performance oriented monitoring and evaluation systems; Criteria for appropriate, productive and socially just allocation of forests; Increase in training to strengthen capabilities of MFSC professionals.
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Management assessment: Forestry Development Project
KEYWORD: Community-based Natural Forest Management, Asia. Asia, Nepal, community forestry, incentives, conservation, land use, decentralization, forestry department, institutional strengthening, community participation, education, evaluation. SUMMARY: This evaluation identifies problems in implementation of project activities, gives possible solutions, and suggests activities to be undertaken by the Forest Development Project (FDP), a grant agreement between the government of Nepal and USAID. The report also highlights the objectives and priorities of Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MFSC), the role and responsibilities of the Planning Division of MFSC, the progress of the FDP to date, and the financial and human resources available to FDP. Problems were noted in the clarity of the tasks required in the project document, the short-term nature of the project support, and overly centralized technical assistance. Major constraints to the implementation of the FDP include frequent transfers of staff, lack of definition of staff roles, lack of clear project focus and criteria, the top-down planning approach, lack of incentives for field staff, slow rate of hand-over of land to communities, overly-centralized technical assistance, and slow decision-making. The author recommends that planning, budgeting, programming, project analysis, training and rapid technical support receive high priority for improvements. Furthermore the author suggests that priorities be placed on the following, in order of importance: Development and dissemination of methodology for forestry development plans; Performance oriented monitoring and evaluation systems; Criteria for appropriate, productive and socially just allocation of forests; Increase in training to strengthen capabilities of MFSC professionals.