Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan

January 7, 2020

Monitoring and Evaluation

Reviewing and Updating the MEL Plan

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan serves as a tool to guide overall project performance. As such, the team will update it as necessary to reflect changes in USAID AMPR’s strategy and ongoing tasks. Updates will also incorporate feedback from USAID as well GoCAR. Monitoring, evaluation, and learning are therefore not one-time occurrences, but rather part of an ongoing process of review, revision, and implementation. The MEL team will review the MEL Plan annually, update if necessary, and submit a revised version along with the proposed Annual Work Plan. For this purpose, the monitoring period each year is from October 1 – September 30.

This plan is the second version of the MEL Plan produced in September 2019 and submitted for USAID approval along with the second Annual Work Plan (2019-2020).The main revisions are in annual targets and some baseline values following the studies and data collection conducted in the first year of project implementation.

Performance Indicators

USAID AMPR’s performance indicator table (Table 1) presents a range of both custom and standard indicators at the output, outcome, and impact levels. The table also includes all the standard foreign assistance indicators (“standard indicators” or “F indicators”) relevant to project activities. USAID AMPR will also track custom outcome indicators to measure the eight results listed in the contract plus several custom crosscutting indicators. The team will disaggregate indicator data reported by task/country and all person-level indicators by gender, except where government-provided data does not allow disaggregation.1 The Performance Indicator Reference Sheets (PIRSs) in Annex A contain full details for each indicator, including use of indicator, baseline procedures, data collection methodologies, data quality assurance measures, and justifications for proposed targets.

Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR) Environmental Management and Mitigation Plan (EMMP) Year I: October 2018 – September 2019

September 10, 2019

Monitoring and Evaluation

Executive Summary

The Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (USAID AMPR) project supports the USAID Land and Urban Office in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment (E3/LU) in improving land and resource governance and strengthening property rights for all members of society, especially women. Its specific purpose is to address land and resource governance challenges in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, using a multidisciplinary approach and incorporating appropriate and applicable evidence and tools. The project builds upon activities and lessons from the Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD I and II) projects. The USAID AMPR contract was signed on September 28, 2018 and will run initially for 3 base years and with two optional years possible. Most project activities will be carried out in the Central African Republic.

The Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) Summary submitted was approved on March 20, 2018. The IEE gave a Negative Determination with Conditions (See Annex for copy of the IEE). Pursuant to the requirement to submit an Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (EMMP) within 60 days of signature of the contract between Tetra Tech and USAID, this initial statement spells out the ways in which the project will respond to the conditions spelled out in the IEE. In subsequent years, annual reports will indicate how the environmental issues are addressed.

During the project start-up phase, the project management team led by Project Manager Dr. Mark Freudenberger, Technical Deputy Terah DeJong, and Chief of Party Maxie Muwonge will conduct training sessions for all project staff on the intent of EMMP’s and the specific measures the project will take to implement the negative determination with conditions. The project management team is blessed with experiences learned from the Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development Project (PRADD II) carried out previously in the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea. In these countries, the project confronted successfully many environmental problematics associated particularly with the artisanal diamond economy.

Artisanal Mining and Property Rights (AMPR): Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan

September 10, 2019

Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan serves as a tool to guide overall project performance. As such, the team will update it as necessary to reflect changes in USAID AMPR’s strategy and ongoing tasks. Updates will also incorporate feedback from USAID as well GoCAR. Monitoring, evaluation, and learning are therefore not one-time occurrences, but rather part of an ongoing process of review, revision, and implementation. The MEL team will review the MEL Plan annually, update if necessary, and submit a revised version along with the proposed Annual Work Plan (AWP). For this purpose, the monitoring period each year is from October 1 – September 30th.

Performance Indicators

Participative Evaluation Report on the Local Peace and Reconciliation Committees (CLPR) and the Local Kimberley Process Monitoring Branches (ALS) in the Compliant Zone of Berberati

September 10, 2019

Monitoring and Evaluation

Executive Summary

The Bangui National Forum of May 2015 recommended the creation of “Local Committees of Peace and Reconciliation” (CLPR) by the national political authorities throughout the Central African Republic (CAR). The objectives assigned to these highly decentralized committees was to include and actively involve communities and citizens at the grassroots in the promotion of permanent dialogue deemed necessary for the establishment of peace, conflict prevention, and mediation need to facilitate the return of internally displaced persons and refugees. The creation of the CLPR was formally endorsed by the President of the Republic on December 21, 2016 through the establishment of 12 CLPR in the eight (8) districts of the city of Bangui and its periphery communes of Bégoua and Bimbo.

The implementation of the USAID PRADD II project in the south-west mining regions of the Central African Republic was also part of this constructive approach to peace and social cohesion recommended by the Bangui National Forum. Through close collaboration with the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and National Reconciliation, PRADD II helped to set up in October / November 2017 6 CLPR and 6 Kimberley Process Local Monitoring Committees (ALS), the later under the supervision of Monitoring Committee Antennas (CLS) of the Kimberley Process in compliant communes of the Berberati prefecture. The intent of the Ministry of Mines and Geology (MMG) in supporting social cohesion was to restore the legal diamond chain in Berberati. To this end, the PRADD II project made a commitment to the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and National Reconciliation (MAHRN) to implement its policy of promoting social cohesion. The ministry was assisted by PRADD II to set up CLPRs in six communes. Subsequently, the project funded training for members of these local structures. A kit consisting of megaphones, office supplies, caps, t-shirts, streamers was provided to each CLPR.

During the period from 2017 to 2019, CLPRs and ALS served as a springboard for the development of multiple activities around prevention, mediation and conflict resolution. The organization of the community dialogues led to the signing of Local Pacts for Peace and Social Cohesion in the Berberati compliant zone. The process of negotiating these Local Pacts mobilized around 600 community leaders.

The present evaluation reports on the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of these two local structures supported by PRADD II from 2017-2019. This evaluation was done in the framework of the 2018-2019 USAID AMPR Work Plan and specifically activity 2.1.1 “Evaluating the Peace and Reconciliation Committees.” As noted in the workplan,

This activity aims at building continuity with PRADD II under which 6 Comité Local de Paix et Reconciliation (CLPR) (Peace and Reconciliation Committees) were established in Berberati, though time was limited to support their work. In order to learn from the PRADD II experience and prepare for an expansion of committees and a strengthening of their capacity, the first activity of this component will be a joint MMG-MAHRN evaluation of the committees, examining in particular their actions and how they are perceived in their communities. In order to improve linkages with the KP Operational Framework, the same diagnostic will include an examination of the CLS and ALS committees established in compliant zones at the sub-prefecture and commune levels. The results of the diagnostic will be presented at a national workshop during which time next steps will be determined.

The evaluation methodology brought together CLPRs and ALS in their home localities for two days each to garner their perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of these structures. Guided discussions were led by staff of the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and National Reconciliation and the AMPR project. One of the main objectives pursued in conducting the CLPR and ALS evaluations was to gather lessons about the CLPR and ALS performance, the impact of their respective missions, the constraints encountered in carrying out their respective mandates, and particularly the needs for future support.

Certainly, in any evaluation there are gaps. In this case, the evaluation could not invest the time and the financial means to integrate into the study the perspectives of all the social strata of the villagers affected by the initiatives taken by the CLPR and ALS. We do not yet know yet how different social categories perceive the strengths and weaknesses of CLPRs and ALS. Due to the fact that this diagnosis was made prior to the approval of the AMPR Work Plan and that it occurred during the extended closure of the US government in early 2019, this gap at some point needs to be filled through a more rigorous, but expensive impact evaluation looking at the viewpoints of the local populations. Yet, with the hope of identifying project implementation priorities, AMPR preferred to generate preliminary indications of programmatic orientations in order to better guide project implementation.

The results of this evaluation show that the CLPR and the ALPR play a key role in resolving conflicts at the local level. While it is sometimes difficult to assign direct causality to the actions of these two institutions and the reduction of conflicts, the fact that the committee members themselves view this as a positive attribute is good. The evaluation raises the pressing issue of how the government will support the recurrent costs of these institutional structures. However small the recurrent costs may be, the committees lack the funds to cover even the most basic costs. Unfortunately, the successes the committees achieve in resolving conflicts are not reported to the central government due to the weak administrative linkages between remote villages and the capital city of Bangui. Over time, the volunteers serving on these committees may become discouraged and disillusioned unless motivation is maintained through social recognition or some form of compensation, be it monetary or through skill-building. While this evaluation raises these thorny questions, it is clear that the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and National Reconciliation will replicate the CLPR throughout the country. Yet, for these structures to become sustainable over time, some sort of direct cost recovery is required at the local level, a subject of deep interest to the AMPR project through its initiatives to support decentralized revenue management in diamond mining communities.

The USAID AMPR project organized a restitution workshop on March 1, 2019 under the tutelage of the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and National Reconciliation. During this workshop with the representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Geology, the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and National Reconciliation, and the Ministry of Livestock and Animal Health, the representatives approved the recommendations and conclusions of this evaluation but also proposed new agendas. Participants were especially concerned about the emergence of “armed” pastoralism, or transhumance movements of well-equipped pastoralists equipped with sophisticated weapons.

The mission wishes to express its sincere thanks to all the members of the CLPR and ALS who were kind enough to lend themselves to the various evaluation sessions that took place in the 6 pilot sites from 30 January to 12 February 2019.

Endline National Survey on Property Rights in Kosovo

June 25, 2019

Monitoring and Evaluation

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Kosovo Property Rights Program (USAID PRP) aims to improve the property rights regime in Kosovo, strengthen the rule of law, and increase economic growth and investment. Outreach activities, public education campaigns and support for the legal system were a few of the means used to support these objectives.

USAID PRP contracted UBO Consulting to conduct the Endline National Survey on Property Rights in Kosovo to collect data that sheds light on the legal, procedural and administrative barriers constraining women from inheriting property, and identify additional cultural issues that prevent women and girls from exercising a broader range of property rights. The gathered data reveals current attitudes and perceptions of the general public in Kosovo towards property ownership and women’s rights to inherit property, as well as their level of satisfaction with courts in resolving property disputes. In addition, the survey was used to measure the level of exposure to USAID PRP communications products, and their effect on the community.

The Endline Survey was conducted between October 19, 2018 and November 22, 2018. It collected information from a nationally representative sample of 1,258 respondents residing in Kosovo. There was an oversampling of minority communities for the survey, with the objective of permitting a statistically significant analysis. The results included in this report have been weighted to reflect the size of the minority communities relative to the overall population. The sample of 1,258 respondents included 855 Kosovo Albanians, 204 Kosovo Serbs and 199 Kosovo nonVSerb minorities.

Zambia Land and Resource Tenure Sector: Overview and Recommendations For Future Engagement

May 15, 2019

Monitoring and Evaluation

BACKGROUND

Land is central to livelihoods and economic growth. Agricultural land acts as a social safety net for the poor, unemployed, and elderly to meet subsistence needs, and at the same time, provides opportunities to multiply economic value with targeted investments in infrastructure, fertilization, water, or conservation of existing natural resources. For many countries, property taxes and ground rents in urban areas are the backbone of public service delivery. Strong land and resource management rights and supporting institutions within national and sub-national governments can protect the rights and interests of vulnerable populations and supporting social stability; unlock private sector investment for transformative growth; and, provide reliable public revenue contributing to national self-reliance.

Zambia is a land-rich country with a small rural population and a high degree of urbanization. Yet to date, and despite over 20 years of liberalization of Zambia’s land markets, neither the rural nor urban land sector has been the driver of inclusive economic growth that it can and should be. The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has developed a draft land policy and programs with the goal of providing land tenure security to Zambians, promoting economic growth, and generating government revenue from the sector, all consistent with the 7th National Development Plan. Yet the realization of these goals will require assistance to be implemented successfully.

This assessment provides an overview of the land sector in Zambia as of early 2018, including current challenges and interventions across stakeholder groups and land types. It also summarizes the achievements of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) program and the remaining gaps and priorities, and then outlines recommendations for future interventions focusing on policy and legislation, training and capacity, data analysis and IT, research, and field activities that either build on TGCC momentum, test new pilots, or scale tested approaches. The assessment aims to inform USAID, other cooperating partners (CPs), and other government stakeholders.

TGCC Assessment: Land and Natural Resource Governance and Tenure for Enabling Sustainable Cocoa Cultivation in Ghana

February 21, 2019

Monitoring and Evaluation

Forests are being lost at an alarming rate driven by the expansion of internationally traded commodities. A number of companies have responded by pledging to remove deforestation from their supply chains. This catalyzed the creation of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020—a global public-private partnership aimed at reducing deforestation associated with commodities. Governments have also made commitments to reduce commodity-driven deforestation. In Ghana, cocoa produced by smallholders has been the leading agricultural product driving deforestation. In response, Ghana’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change specifically includes a 45 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the cocoa landscape.

Implementation of these supply chain commitments is lagging, as many companies and governments find that reducing deforestation is harder than expected. Production of deforestation-free commodities is hampered by lack of land use planning, tenure insecurity, weak policy implementation, lax law enforcement, and insufficient monitoring and accountability systems. Meanwhile, governments face an enormous challenge in balancing demands for higher cocoa production with plans to minimize deforestation, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss. For example, the Government of Ghana wants to more than double cocoa output to 1.6 million tons by 2026 to increase farmer incomes and export earnings while simultaneously reducing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.

This report examines the interrelationships between land and tree tenure, cocoa productivity, and deforestation to identify interventions that can help Ghana meet its productivity and REDD+ goals. There are a number of important challenges. A large expanse of cocoa land is experiencing productivity decline. Small growers who once migrated to old growth forests to carve out new cocoa stands now suffer due to diminished remaining forests. Replacing old and unproductive cocoa trees offers potential to increase cocoa productivity while reducing deforestation, but tenure insecurity discourages landlords from allowing tenants to replant trees, while high costs of cocoa rehabilitation are prohibitive to resource-poor small farmers. Promoting shaded cocoa cultivations with timber and non-timber species helps promote sustainable cocoa cultivation and biomass, and on the margin could enable REDD+ payments through fair benefit sharing, but insecure tree rights discourage tree planting. While the Forestry Commission now allows farmers rights to shade trees, this is not widely known or clearly operationalized. Land and tree administration systems are disjointed, and co-sharing of benefits between tenant and landlord untested.

While the Lands Commission is interested in promoting commercial leases for industrial agriculture, the prevalence of a customary land regime promotes smallholder cocoa production. This has prevented large-scale capital investments that could overcome the high replanting costs. Customary tenure arrangements have also historically created incentives to carve out newly planted cocoa farms from secondary and old growth forests, thereby encouraging producers to expand their area rather than intensify production. Due to technical and financial constraints of customary institutions, landscape-scale governance and land use planning within rural cocoa areas rarely happens.

The assessment report concludes with concrete activities to strengthen land and tree tenure, and assist farmers with cocoa rehabilitation to increase productivity, rebuild forests with shaded cocoa, and reduce land use pressures at the forest fringe. Lessons learned would help inform sustainable cocoa production and Ghana’s Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program implementation as well as programs emphasizing other cocoa agroforestry systems (CocoaAction).

Presently, smallholder farms are stuck in an inefficient deadlock of contestations around ambiguous land and tree tenure terms that encourage farmers to keep unproductive cocoa farms in use. Unblocking this deadlock would help create a conducive atmosphere for farmers, landowners, and customary and statutory authorities to mediate and negotiate standard terms for existing land contracts to both improve productivity over the long term as well as reduce deforestation. Tenure reform is urgently needed that improves coordination between customary and statutory structures, reduces conflict between landlord and tenant, clarifies and documents rights in different contractual arrangements to strengthen tenure security, transfers rights over timber trees to landowning groups, channels payments from revenue-sharing schemes to cocoa farmers, and assists smallholders with cocoa rehabilitation to increase land use value.

Based on the land and natural resource governance and tenure assessment, an interlinked set of interventions are identified that encourage replanting old cocoa farms while reducing land use pressures on the forest fringe:

Strengthen Land Governance. Establish mechanisms to resolve tenure disputes; enforce land, tree, and farm rehabilitation agreements; and establish tenure-responsive land use planning to help address both problems of accountability and transparency and promote farm rehabilitation.
Clarify Rights to Land and Trees. Educate farmers and landlords on benefits of clarifying rights. Document land and tree tenure to help address problems of tenure security in land and trees that undermine incentives to invest in present cocoa lands and maintain shade trees on cocoa farms.
Invest in Cocoa Farm Rehabilitation. Engage cocoa buyers, Ghana’s Cocoa Board, and the chocolate industry to create financing plans for tree removal, inputs, and extension services to help overcome the high costs of cocoa farm rehabilitation facing resource-poor farmers. Some small farmers do not want to replant, and others will continue to move to frontier areas because that is what they have always done. But, for many other farmers in the cocoa sector, combining the commitment and wherewithal of cocoa companies, government support agencies, and even the timber industry in a public-private partnership with donor funding would help promote entrepreneurship (particularly among youth), increase cocoa productivity, establish valuable tree species, and improve environmental sustainability.

Some of these components could be implemented as a pilot via a public-private partnership between bilateral donors and the private sector in collaboration with the communities involved. This report puts forward a series of pilot interventions that mirror many aspects of the Government of Ghana’s Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program as well as the World Cocoa Foundation’s CocoaAction program.

The report was commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development through the Tenure and Global Climate Change task order under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract. It was prepared with input and support from Hershey’s and AgroEcom Ghana Ltd.—a subsidiary of Ecom Agroindustrial Corp—who supplies Hershey’s with cocoa from Ghana.

LTA Phase II Baseline and Phase I Midline Report: Impact Evaluation of the Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance Activity

June 21, 2018

Monitoring and Evaluation

Executive Summary

This report corresponds to the impact evaluation (IE) of the Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) activity commissioned by the Office of Land and Urban in the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (USAID/E3). The evaluation uses a two-phase randomized controlled trial design to rigorously test how mobile mapping and facilitation of land tenure certification affect income, women’s empowerment, dispute prevalence and other factors related to land use and tenure security in Iringa District, Tanzania. This document provides findings from the Phase II baseline for the IE, which includes a snapshot of key demographics, household characteristics and outcome variables. The report also covers the Phase I midline and provides comparisons between the Phase I midline and baseline data. The document further provides a robust overview of key metrics for households in rural Iringa, and investigates whether changes have occurred between the two Phase I data collection rounds.

LTA Activity Description

Tanzania presents a dynamic land tenure context. All land in Tanzania is owned by the state and held in trust by the president, but individuals residing on or using designated “Village Land” have the right to obtain formal documentation of their use rights in the form of a Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO).1 However, insufficient capacity of district land offices (DLOs) that issue CCROs, a lack of funds to pay CCRO fees, unfamiliarity with formal land laws and other factors have resulted in few villagers obtaining formal documentation for their plots. Increasingly, the Government of Tanzania (GOT) and the donor community recognize that improving the security of land rights is essential to protecting the rights of smallholders, reducing disputes and tensions and maximizing the economic potential of the region.

USAID/Tanzania awarded the four-year, $6 million LTA activity to DAI in December 2015. The activity seeks to clarify and document land ownership, support local land use planning efforts, and increase local understanding of land use and land rights in Tanzania. The LTA activity assists villages and the local DLO in Iringa and Mbeya districts in completing the land use planning process and delivering CCROs in select villages. It also provides education on land laws, CCROs and land management. The LTA activity is using the Mobile Application to Secure Tenure (MAST), an app that facilitates the mapping and CCRO process. The LTA activity is being implemented in 36 villages: six that were chosen for initial implementation, and an additional 30 in Iringa District, Tanzania as part of the IE.

Investor Survey On Land Rights 2018

May 30, 2018

Monitoring and Evaluation

Investors are critical players in creating land-based investments that respect the legitimate tenure rights of local landholders. This new survey captures how investors perceive, price, and mitigate land-based risks as well as quantify the costs of such risks materializing and the value of foregone investments. The report will assist investors, donors, civil society, and governments to make the case that responsible land-based investments can benefit all stakeholders.

Background

As private sector actors are increasingly asked to play a more pro-active, socially responsible role to recognize and support the legitimate land rights of communities affected by land-based investments, more information is required to support responsible investment decision making and to better understand the complexity of land tenure risk. In 2017, USAID initiated the Investor Survey on Land Rights, implemented by Indufor North America, to delve into the drivers of tenure risk surrounding land-based investment and learn how investors and operators assess, mitigate and are affected by such risks. The findings provide a first-of-a-kind glimpse into investor perceptions of land tenure risks and strategies to create responsible land-based investments.

Methods

The Investor Survey on Land Rights employed a purposive sampling approach to maximize the number of targeted respondents. The survey targeted two groups, investors—organizations that provide capital or develop projects—and operators, organizations that produce, process, and/or wholesale raw materials.

The Survey was conducted in two rounds. The first round targeted 4,900 organizations to screen for qualified respondents and collect basic data on organizational information and perceptions of tenure risks and yielded 143 responses. Seventy-five of these respondents were then selected to participate in the second round of surveying based on their: 1) Active involvement in land-based investments, 2) Level of influence in operational decisions, with the requirement of owning a stake of 10% or more in a land-based investment, and 3) Sector, with a focus on agriculture, forestry, or energy. The second survey round assessed the strategies used by respondents to identify and manage tenure risks, and yielded in-depth information regarding 102 projects worldwide, including 39 rejected and 63 undertaken projects in agriculture, forestry and renewable energy.

Five investors and one operator also shared concrete case studies of how they successfully managed land tenure risks prior to and during their project development and implementation. While the context and challenges each organization faced were unique, key findings and lessons can be drawn from the respondents’ experiences.

Key Findings and Lessons Learned

Respondents perceive land tenure risk as increasingly important to their organizations. When asked to rank land tenure risk amongst a variety of business risks, land tenure was ranked as the second most important risk among operators, and the seventh most important risk among investors. Fifty-eight percent of all respondents noted that land tenure risks had increased significantly or very significantly during the past five years.
Use-related land and resource risks, such as those involving community rights to access resources or local community land disputes, were perceived to be of greater importance for investors and operators compared to governance-related risks, such as corruption or title irregularities. For example, 58% of respondents noted community land use risks had increased in the past five years compared to 27% of respondents noting title irregularities had increased.
Land tenure risks are predominately assessed qualitatively. Ninety-eight percent of respondents report that they perform qualitative assessments such as community consultations and verification of land titles through field work. Quantitative approaches were used by less than half of the respondents.
Sixty-one percent of the rejected investments in the sample were rejected due to land tenure risks, including local community land disputes and community right to access resources.
Community consultations and community development programs were the most widely used mitigation strategies, which were considered effective by about 60% of the respondents using those approaches.
Land tenure challenges persisted in 81% of the undertaken projects, despite proactive mitigation strategies. Budgeting and planning for mitigation measures, particularly community engagement activities, throughout the project can increase the sustainability of the investment.

PROSPER Agricultural Value Chain Assessment

May 9, 2018

Monitoring and Evaluation

Since 2007 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has played a leadership role in promoting community forest management and land tenure reforms in Liberia. Recognizing the significant link between poverty and poor forest use and management, USAID-funded activities in this sector have always been coupled with support to livelihood improvements in the targeted communities. As part of its overall goal, the People, Rules, and Organizations Supporting the Protection of Ecosystem Resources (PROSPER) program aims to reduce threats to biodiversity of community forests through improvements in sustainable economic livelihood opportunities that support biodiversity conservation and income generation. With limited resources available, it was evident that program investments would need to selectively target livelihood interventions that provide the best opportunities for increased and long-term income generation. Given the significant role of agriculture in all of the program’s target areas, this assessment was designed to determine which agricultural value chain(s) to support and develop in PROSPER communities.

The assessment was conducted using a variety of methods to collect information. The assessment team reviewed lessons learned from previous forestry programs in Liberia, conducted desk research on past studies and local publications, designed and implemented multiple surveys, and interviewed diverse stakeholders in the agricultural sector including farmers participating in the Farmer Field School, traders, marketers, transporters, women groups, representatives of associations, and agro-input suppliers in the PROSPER communities of Nimba and Grand Bassa counties. Eight selection criteria were developed in order to score and rank the various crops: suitability for target population; potential for value addition; existing demand and growth potential; potential to increase income; labor requirement; capital requirements; time between start-up and first returns; and impact on reducing threats to biodiversity. Nine crops were assessed: cassava, cocoa, coffee, hot pepper, oil palm, plantain, rice (lowland and upland), and rubber.

The forest communities supported by PROSPER are primarily involved in shifting cultivation for subsistence production. Even in communities where cash crops (cocoa, coffee, oil palm, or rubber) are grown, the majority of farmers work on two acres or less. Lack of infrastructure (mainly feeder roads) makes transportation costs high and puts many markets out of reach for program beneficiaries. These factors, in addition to the above-mentioned selection criteria, needed to be seriously considered by the program in assessing which value chains to invest in over the four remaining years of the program.

After careful analysis, cocoa, hot pepper, oil palm, and plantain emerged as the top value chains for consideration. Each proved to have a good balance of labor and capital requirements and high potential for reducing the threats to biodiversity, while also being suitable for the target population. These crops also have a strong domestic market and, in the case of cocoa, strong export market potential. In the case of oil palm and cocoa, previous and current investment by other donors has strengthened key aspects of these value chains, allowing PROSPER beneficiaries the opportunity to take advantage of these improvements. Upon closer review of PROSPER program resources and the remaining duration of the PROSPER program, these four value chains were finally narrowed down to cocoa and oil palm.