“REDD+ in the Central African Republic is a genuine sustainable development tool, led at the highest level. The support from CAFI to prepare a national investment framework for REDD+, that we want robust and inclusive, is a strategic opportunity to strengthen efforts, capacities and the sustainable and democratic management of forests, despite our recent political and security challenges.”

H.E. Arlette SOMBO-DIBELE, Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development, Water, Forests, Hunting and Fisheries

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World Bank receives US$ 2.240 million from CAFI Fund to support the development of the National Investment Frameworks of Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Republic of Congo

At a Glance

Preparatory Grant	Approved on 22 February 2016 (Decision EB.2016.2) 1 million US$ to develop a National Investment Framework (NIF), executed jointly with the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Readiness Preparation grant.
Responsible Governmental Party	Ministry of the Environment and Ecology (MEEDD)
Implementing organization	World Bank
Funds transferred	See the MPTF Gateway CAFI page, under "projects" or here
Status	National Investment Framework currently under revision. The document was submitted to CAFI in April 2020 for an independent evaluation and the government is currently integrating comments and recommendations from this evaluation.

Context and advances

The forests of the Central African Republic span over 28.3 million hectares and cover 45% of its territory.

The history of the CAR is marked by sudden regime changes, but the recent political and security crises have exacerbated its socio-economic difficulties. Landlocked and dependent on the river Oubangui-Congo and routes to Chad and Cameroon, CAR is among the poorest of the least developed countries, with a Human Development Index placing it 188th out of 188 countries (UNDP, 2016).

While an in-depth study of the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation is being conducted, indirect and direct drivers have been preliminary identified. Even prior to the most recent crisis, CAR had suffered from more than a decade of conflict and political instability. Yet, in spite of instability and limited resources, the country has continued to advance its REDD+ agenda. CAR is preparing institutional arrangement for REDD+ and a socially and environmentally-sound National REDD+ Strategy. The National REDD+ Committee is chaired at the highest level, by the Prime Minister.

A preparatory grant to develop a National REDD+ Investment Framework

The CAFI Executive Board approved a grant of 1 million US$ to support the Central African Republic in developing a comprehensive multi-sector National Investment Framework for REDD+ (NIF) that consolidates national financing priorities through a broad consultative process.

The National Investment Framework will complement the design process of the National REDD+ Strategy and identify financing priorities - and associated budgets - for addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.

The development of the NIF emphasizes consultations with relevant development partners, such as embassies of donor countries, technical agencies or implementing organizations, to:

reinforce the coordinating role of National REDD+ Committee chaired by the Prime Minister so that development partners are encouraged to align their programs and initiatives with the NIF
help mobilize additional resources and direct them towards priority programs identified in the NIF

High-level and focused multi-stakeholder consultations with authorities, civil society and indigenous organizations the private sector, elected representatives, researches are also planned.

Progress to date

National Investment Framework elaborated, submitted to CAFI, independently evaluated and currently under final revision by the government.
26 national measures to address deforestation and degradation during the period 2020-2025 were pre-identified and discussed with government and civil society stakeholders on 5 August 2019. The measures cover land-use planning, tenure, environmental impact studies, agriculture, mining, forestry, wood energy and finance and were identified based on a range of thematic feasibility studies carried out by a consortium of national and international experts. Another study to test some of the identified measures in three priority zones (South-West, Bangui and Bangassou in the South-East) will be conducted in September.
REDD+/CAFI project implementation unit in place and operational, working in tandem with the climate change coordination team as well as with the World Bank investment on Natural Resource Governance (forestry and minerals).
Institutional anchoring in Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. There have been at least 10 different sectoral ministers involved in launching the REDD+ program to date and setting up the different prefectoral committees, including planning, agriculture, forestry, among others. There is strong support to date and the REDD+ process continues to build awareness and collaboration.
Key consultancies launched for the development of the national strategy and SESA
Three Inter-Prefectoral committees established, in areas with strategic forest resources, including information about CAFI.
Civil society actively engaged through civil society natural resources platform in consultations, information sharing and collaboration on national REDD+ program

The elaboration of the REDD+ strategy (financed by FCPF) and of the SESA (financed by FCPF) has started, also under supervision of the Ministry of Environment. These activities will inform each other.

Next steps: Continuation of policy dialogue and analysis of feasibility

CAFI's preparatory grant expired in June 2020. Therefore, a call for expression of interest (EoI) was launched in August 2020 to identify an implementing agency that will continue to support the policy dialogue between CAFI and the CAR government and conduct pre-feasibility studies for the pilot projects identified in the national investment framework (the greater Bangui area, the Dzanga Sangha and Mbaere Bodingue protected area complex and the Bangassou forest complex).