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QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT TEMPLATE (draft)
[This report should inform Project Board Members at annual project board meetings]
PROJECT TITLE: Solomon Islands Integrating Global Environment Commitments in Investment and
Development Decision Making (IGECIDDM)/CB2
PROJECT NUMBER: 00083083
Applicable Output(s) from the SRPD (2018-2022):
_____________________________________________________________________________________
PART 1: DESCRIBE THE KEY RESULTS ACHIEVED IN THIS QUARTER:
Describe the planned interventions of the project and describe how the interventions have enabled the
achievement of the intended results, linking this to the Theory of Change. State any change that have
results supported by evidence that is attributed to the project. If achievements are still at the activity
results level than describe how it contributes to the Output/Overall Project level result.
Most of the achievements attributed to this project is still at the activity results level.
As part of the efforts to fulfill output 1.1- strengthening of the Ministry of Forest and Research REDD+
Implementation Unit (MoFR/RIU) capacity to implement the National REDD+ Readiness Roadmap-
MoFR/ RIU commended the project in developing and providing trainings on the Training Manual (TM)
on Geospatial Data Management/handling and the TM for Community Based Ecosystem Assessment for
REDD+ Projects in the Solomon Islands. They acknowledge that the TM on Geospatial Data Management
is important to the Ministry because it is simple to understand and is a very helpful resource in guiding
the ministry’s effort in National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) and Measuring Reporting and
Verification (MRV). Likewise, the TM on the Community Based Ecosystem Assessments for REDD+
Projects provides a practical guide to the key steps involved in identifying, assessing, and
communicating the value of ecosystem services as well as forest inventory and the voluntary
participation of rural communities in support of REDD+ initiatives. The trainings have been
conducted by the project’s consultant not only for MoFR/RIU staff but also for MAL, MECDM
including the Kia/Barorafa rural community (which is one of the REDD+ potential pilot sites in
the country). The attached MoFR forestry newsletters provides evidence of some of these trainings
highlighted.
Regarding output 1.2 (global environment priorities are mainstreamed into selected development
plans) to facilitate and coordinate the collective Solomon Islands Government (SIG) learning-by-doing
process to integrate the Rio Conventions into selected development plans and policies, an Analytical
Framework for mainstreaming the Rio Conventions using REDD+ has been developed. Strategically, the
significance of this analytical framework is it will guide and help coordinate the integration of the Rio
Conventions into domestic legislation, plans and policies in Solomon Islands where they have not
already been domesticated in national legislation. That is if the SIG seriously wants to go down the part
of fully complying with these obligations by mainstreaming them in domestic laws and policies. The
framework sets out what these Rio Conventions obligations are; it identifies relevant national laws and
policies whereby the mainstreaming exercised can be materialize as well as proposing specific
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obligations in the form of amendments to be adopted into selected laws and policies. The framework
also highlights what other systematic actions needs to be undertaken to comprehensively mainstream
the Rio Conventions obligations
1
. Trainings will be provided on this framework by the project’s
Environment Law consultant as soon as the framework is endorsed
2
. These trainings is expected to be
done in the fourth and final quarter of 2017, more specifically end of October.
For output 1.3 which focuses on supporting the financial sustainability of implementing the REDD+
Roadmap, a Resource Mobilization Strategy (RMS) has been developed and a feasibility study report has
been produced which outlines the best practice financial and economic instruments to pilot the
implementation of the Roadmap. The RMS provides an overview of key actions SIG needs to undertake
to mobilize resources to ensure sustainability of the REDD+ Roadmap implementation in the long-term.
The report on best practices, provides an inventory regarding potential best practices, financial and
economic instruments useful for the Roadmap’s implementation as well as further advancement of the
REDD+ initiative in the country
3
. These reports are in the process of being endorsed by MECDM and
MoFR on behalf of the Government and UNDP.
In the efforts to fulfil output 2.1- global environment priorities and REDD+ Safeguards are integrated
within the development consent process- several important documents had been produced. The first
one is reports which take stock of the Cancun related safeguards already existing within national laws
and policies and areas that need strengthening with regards to social and environmental safeguards,
and the potential social/economic benefits and risks of the proposed REDD+ activity implementation
and priorities. The significance of these reports are they can be the basis to inform the setting up of
Safeguards System.
The second sets of reports produced are gap analysis reports with recommendations, focusing on the
Code of Logging Practice (COLP) under the Ministry of Forestry & Research (MoFR) and the National
Rural Land Use Policy (NRLUP) under the Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock (MAL) which recommended
specific actions both ministries needs to undertake to create an “enabling environment” for effective
implementation of the COLP and the NRLUP in consideration of the EIA process under the Environment
Act.
Third and finally a social and environmental impact assessment guideline and checklist for forestry
sector (logging) and agriculture sector (mainly for palm oil development) have been developed. The
purpose of these checklist is to link the two key prescribed developments under these two sectors
(forest and agriculture sector) to the EIA process under the Environmental Act
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. Once these checklists
have been adopted and implemented by MoFR and MAL, they are expected to strengthen and ensure
that any prescribed development such as logging and commercial plantations within the forest and
agricultural sector comply with the EIA process under the Environment Act 1998. This will help improve
the process to account for how much land cover has been affected as well as social and environmental
impacts caused by these developments within these sectors and how to monitor them under the EIA
1
That is what other relevant needs laws needs to be amended and so forth.
2
The project is working closely with MECDM PS on endorsing this framework.
3
As required under the prodoc, the project team is working closely with PS MECDM and PS MOFR on their
feedbacks on how well in terms of ‘quality’ they thought of the RMS and Report on best practice financial and
economic instruments to implement the National REDD+ Readiness Roadmap.
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The project team is working towards ensuring these documents are adopted and used by the relevant SIG
ministries.
3
under the Act. The Project team are in the process of getting the reports endorsed hence printed them
out and share them with the Government and other interested stakeholders.
RESULTS RESOURCE FRAMEWORK QUARTETLY PROGRESS (**In some projects, Outputs in Project Documents are
equivalent to Activity Results level in ATLAS)
EXPECTED
ATLAS
ACTIVITY
RESULTS
ACTIVITY
RESULTS
INDICATORS
BASELINE
ANNUAL
TARGETS
OUTPUTS INDICATORS
RESULTS
ACTIVITY
RESULTS 1
Strengthen
organizational
capacities of the
REDD+
Implementation
Unit
No. of training
workshops
undertaken.
REDD+ unit has
mandate to
coordinate
CCCD Activities
Evidence of
public sector
staff’s
technical
capacities
related to the
Rio
Conventions
is limited
Government
staff have
learned,
applied, and
tested best
practice
tools to
integrate
Rio
Conventions
into forest
and
agriculture
sector
development
plans
Progress Keys:
On Track, Achieved or Off
track
Status:
60% achieved
On Track.
Report Results Achieved
against Activity Results 1
Indicator(s):
ACTIVITY
RESULTS 2
Global
environment
priorities are
mainstreamed
into selected
national and
provincial
development
plans through a
REDD+
Framework
Analytical
framework for
integrating Rio
Conventions into
forest and
agriculture sector
planning
There is no
systematic
approach or
institutional
procedures to
integrate
environmental
conservation
priorities and
Rio
Convention
provisions
into socio-
analytical
framework
finalized
and is rated
highly by
peer review
experts.
Progress Keys:
On Track, Achieved or
Progress
Status:
50% achieved
Report Results Achieved
against Activity Results 2
Indicator(s):
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economic
development
planning
processes
The Analytical framework
for mainstreaming of Rio
Conventions using REDD+
has been developed and
currently awaiting
endorsement.
ACTIVITY
RESULTS 3
resource
mobilization
strategy in place.
Resource
mobilization
strategy and plan
for National
REDD+
Roadmap
Feasibility study
and consultations
on REDD+
Roadmap
implementation
Strategy and
plan drafted,
reviewed,
and
finalized by
month 7
Feasibility
study on
financial
and
economic
instruments
to
implement
REDD+
Roadmap
completed
by month 12
Progress Keys:
On Track, Achieved or
Progress
Status:
50% achieved
Report Results Achieved
against Activity Results 3
Indicator(s):
OVERALL
OUTPUT
PROGRESS
RESULTS
(contributes to
ROAR Section
B and IWP EA)
Progress Keys:
On Track, Achieved or
Progress
Status:
Report Results Achieved
against Output Results
Indicator (s):
PART 2: PARTNERSHIP
Implementing Partner (IP)
and Focal Point Contact
(Title, email, fax, phone,
address)
Type of
Partnerships/Role
Duration of
Partnership
Progress of
Deliverables from
Partnership (**)
SIG-MECDM.
Channel Iroi
Under Secretary/ Technical
Email: c.iroi@mecm.gov.sb
Formal-Project key
focal point within
MECDM
Ongoing
Provision of office
space for projects;
use of vehicle;
operation and
amenities
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Provide technical
inputs into the
technical reports
produced by the
project consultants
to meet the outputs.
SIG-MoFR
Cathy Unga
Chief Forest Officer
Email.cathy.unga@gmail.com
formal
On-going
support the project
through collating
inputs from the
ministry in aid of the
project outputs.
**Describe the progress of the key assumptions and expected results achieved by partners that were critical for the identified
results
PART 3: RISK and ASSUMPTIONS
Update the Risk Log on this section (This can be updated directly in ATLAS).
Risk
Mitigation Action
Timeframe
Mitigation Action
Progress
Lack of political will to
adopt the developed
policies, checklists and
the proposed
amendments
Closely liaise with the
key Government
ministries to ensure
these documents are
considered and
adopted.
Closely liaise and use
UNDP as a channel to
get the message across
to the Government on
the importance of
these documents
produced under this
project.
On-going
Competing with other
projects for
Government support
Use project board
members who are
CEOs or permanent
secretaries to pass the
message to their
officers to render their
support.
Organize workshops to
get feedbacks from
Government on the
deliverables produced
On-going
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by the project
consultants.
So far two of the eight
project’s consultants’
contracts haven’t been
renewed and
prematurely
terminated due to
under performance.
This has hindered
project
implementation in a
huge way.
Open discussion with
the concerned ICs on a
professional manner to
prevent any of the ICs
taking any legal action
against the project.
On-going
PART 4: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION
List any specific knowledge products that was produced to leverage project results. Level of project
visibility and lessons learned generated by the project should be documented.
It was unfortunate that during this quarter no knowledge products such as media publications has been
produced. This comes after the dismissal of the project’s community consultations and stakeholder
engagement consultant- the consultant who supposed to produce radio programmes, news articles,
brochures to showcase the project activities.
PART 5: KEY LESSONS LEARNT AND CHALLENGES
Describe the key lessons learnt, challenges of achieving the results in this quarter. Also explain how this
project will address key lessons learnt and challenges to ensure that the Project Output will be
successfully achieved.
Carrying on from the momentum generated from the second quarter when project consultant’s
gradually deliver on their deliverables
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, third quarter has been a step further in terms of efforts to meet
the project outputs as the consultants continue to meet the deliverables expected of them. That is
despite the key challenges faced especially in getting technical inputs from the SIG into these technical
documents due to competing priorities with other projects. As highlighted earlier on that the key
deliverables produced to fulfil the relevant outputs includes the: Training Manuals (TM) on Geospatial
Data Management/handling and the TM for Community Based Ecosystem Assessment for REDD+
Projects in the Solomon Islands; the Analytical Framework for mainstreaming the Rio Conventions using
REDD+ to guide and help coordinate SIG efforts to integrate the Rio Conventions into domestic
legislation, plans and policies; a Resource Mobilization Strategy (RMS) to ensure sustainability of the
REDD+ Roadmap implementation in the long-term, and; the social impact assessment guideline and
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Please note that the documents (either in the form of technical reports, policy, checklist, guidelines, proposal or
legal amendments) produced by the consultants to meet the deliverables expected of them are structured in a way
that once they are finalised and are endorsed by the UNDP and SIG, they somehow contribute directly to fulfil the
relevant outputs of the projects.
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checklist for forestry sector (logging) and agriculture sector (mainly for palm oil development) linking
these sectors to the EIA process under the Environment Act.
It should also be noted that these very important documents have been made possible only through the
project team’s innovation in convening workshops whereby Government officials have been invited to
deliberate on the documents and provide their inputs. This method has worked out so far enabling
consultants to finalize their reports following government inputs hence meet their deliverables.
Consequently, the project team will continue using this method to enable consultants to finalize their
remaining deliverables. Also despite experiencing the setbacks associated with the premature
termination of two of the project consultants’ contracts, the project team in close collaboration with the
UNDP RSD team and the procurement team has already managed to engage someone who is currently
on the ground finalizing the third and final deliverable (environmental checklist for logging and palm oil
development) left undone by the Environment Safeguards Specialist. Also, work is underway in getting
someone to take over from where the former Community Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement
consultant stopped.
PART 6: SUSTAINABILITY AND SCALING UP
**This question is only applicable if project is reporting on its final quarter.
Describe how the project have used relevant national systems to sustain and scale up the results
achieved. Describe how the national capacities have been strengthened through this project and how
national ownership have been realized.
Following the project’s initiative in recruiting and funding a female forest officer for the newly
established MoFR REDD+ Implementation Unit (RIU) using SIG recruitment process, the ministry has
now absorbed this officer into its payroll. This female officer is the only second officer to be part of this
new unit. Recently the Ministry has just recruited a third officer to be apart of the team. Had it not been
for the project’s initiative at the first place, the MoFR/RIU won’t be up and running the way, it is now.
These officers have been sent by the ministry to undertake on the job trainings in Korea under KOICA
support as well as Japan under JICA support.
Likewise, following the recent trainings conducted on the Training Manuals (TM) on Community Based
Ecosystem Assessment for REDD+ Projects in the Solomon Islands both for the ministry and the Kia rural
community in Isabel Province, an MOU has been signed between the ministry on behalf of the SIG and
the Kia Community to collaborate in selected REDD+ activities on the Barorafa Island-a pilot site
identified in the REDD+ Roadmap.
PART 7: QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT
Activity Result
Planned
Activities
Budget (USD)
Amount Spent
Balance
8
Strengthen
organizational
capacities of the
REDD+
Implementation
Unit
71,206
36,000
40,000
PART 8: LIST OF EVIDENCE PROVIDED AS ANNEX
Example 1: If training has been done for youths or women you need to have evidence via list of
participants disaggregated by gender, age and signed by participants (as per workshop participant list
etc.)
For Workshop reports the following are required; author, date of report and title. A copy of the final
report needs to be submitted.
▪ Training reports on the manuals and list of participants
▪ Quarterly progress report
PART 9: QUALITY ASSUARANCE
PROJECT MANAGER:
Name:
Signature:
REVIEWED & APPROVED:
TEAM LEADER
Name:
Signature
VALIDATION ON RBM,
EVIDENCE BASED REPORTING&
CLEARANCE FOR CORPORATE
UPDATE OF RESULTS (ATLAS
&CPS)
IRMU
M&E Analyst:
Signature: