Tropical Forest Alliance 2020

Regional Coordinator Progress Report

Report Summary

Date Completed: 26-06-2018

Region: Africa
Name of Host Organization: Palladium
Report completed by: Joseph Lumumba and Sylvia Gana
Period covered in this report: 1 July 2017– 30 June 2018

Executive Summary of Progress to Date

This report presents the main activities executed by the TFA 2020 Africa Regional Coordinator to achieving
a deforestation-free commodity value chain in the period July 2017 to June 2018. Further the narrative
report details key achievements to the main expected outcomes outlined in the Work plan and scope of
work of the platform at regional level. In particular the TFA 2020 work in West and Central Africa sought to:
(1)Support the continued implementation of the Africa Palm Oil Initiative (APOI), in cooperation with the
APOI implementing partners at Proforest, to support the adoption of regional principles for sustainable palm
oil development and support the emergence of national partnership for the implementation of the said
principles. (2) Similarly, the TFA 2020 regional coordination supports the implementation of the Cocoa and
Forests Initiative (CFI), a new collaborative programme by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), The
Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and The Prince of Wales Sustainability Unit (ISU) to promote sustainable
sourcing of cocoa beans in Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana.

We have succeeded in creating and reinforcing the connectivity between CFI and APOI thanks to the
engagement with the World Cocoa Foundation and IDH in the region. This has helped in creating synergies
between the palm oil (APOI) and cocoa sectors. A good number of cocoa sector companies such as
Touton, are now TFA 2020 partner. Also many CFI stakeholders are invited to take part in TFA 2020 events
and vice versa including joining the TFA 2020 calls.

Initially, TFA 2020 engagement with the Government of Ghana, has been with the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture, this has been broadened to the ministries of Lands and Natural Resources (including the
Forestry Commission); Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation, and Ministry of Trade
and Industry providing an increased visibility of the platform and offering further opportunities for leveraging
and synergy of action.
In Liberia, Conservation International, APOI country facilitator has been granted funding by UNDP, Good
Growth Commodity program to support the implementation of the Liberian APOI action plan.

A few public-private partnerships initiatives, mostly catalysed by the Partnership for Forest (P4F) with
whom we are working very closely are at various stages of development in the region. We have provided
good visibility to those projects by engaging the proponents to upload their projects on the TFA 2020
Initiatives Platform as well as providing opportunity to showcase and present on Solution MarketPlace in
order to stimulate emulation. The Dialogue resulted in some expression of interest for further support –
including an inquiry from the West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA-BICC) program regarding a
partnership with TFA 2020 that has the potential for evolving into a transboundary cooperation for
sustainably managing the Taï-Grebo-Krahn-Sapo Landscape between Liberia and Cote D’Ivoire.

There is an increased awareness around jurisdictional approach with donors and a variety of stakeholders.
For example, we are in discussion with AFD (Agence Française de Développement) in Accra, Ghana that
in planning a deforestation-free initiative in Ghana involving the Twifo Oil Palm Plantation (TOPP), Benso
Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) and NORPALM.

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Regional Team Updates

This period started off with the recruitment of Joseph Lumumba as the new Africa Regional Coordinator for
the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, who took up his post in September 2017. In this position Joseph works
on behalf of the TFA 2020, which DFID funds through a central secretariat at the World Economic Forum,
and he is hosted by the Palladium Group office in Accra, Ghana. Since March 2018, Joseph is assisted by
Sylvia Gana who is helping on administrative issues.

Hon. Mike Doryen Managing Director of the Forestry Development of Liberia and Col. Ernest Ahoulou
REDD+ Coordinator for Cote D’Ivoire became TFA 2020 Steering Committee members respectively in April
and March 2018.

Regional Committee Engagement

We stayed engaged with the Regional Committee through the bi-monthly Africa Regional Committee (ARC)
calls in which we engage the committee members on a number of issues including seeking input in shaping
our intervention strategy for example. Also we reached out to the committee to link us up to some key
regional, government officials and private companies involved in the supply chains. The ARC has been
quite instrumental in mentoring, validating our work plans and been providing valuable contributions in the
preparations of the TFA 2020 General Assembly week. Initially facilitated by our colleague from the
Secretariat, we took over the preparation, and facilitation of the calls to ensure regional ownership from
December 2017.

The overall engagement of the Regional Committee has been great. Some members however could make
more efforts in participating in the calls to provide their perspective and stay updated. We would have to
align as well with setting the call dates and invest in reaching out early for the calls at least a month ahead
of the call.

Another issue that might be worth reviewing is the lack of governmental representation of the Congo Basin
country in the Regional Committee.

TFA 2020 Partner Engagement in the Region

The table below, provides details about partner engagement in the region.

National Governments
Country: GHANA
o Initially, TFA 2020 engagement with the Government of Ghana, has been with the Ministry of
Food and Agriculture, this has been broaden to the ministries of Lands and Natural Resources
(including the Forestry Commission); Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and
Innovation, and Ministry of Trade and Industry providing an increased visibility of the platform
and offering further opportunities for leveraging and synergy of action

Sub-national Governments
o The Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP) featured in the Implementation
dialogue and covers five ecological zones in Ghana. Working alongside the program would
provide a great opportunity to engage with the subnational government officials in Ghana and
engage with key stakeholders such as the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Forestry
Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. GCFRP has been accepted
into the pipeline of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s Carbon Fund, and the aim is to
use carbon finance to provide up-front funding for jurisdictional programs that promote
sustainable agriculture, beginning with cocoa but spreading to other commodities.

Private sector
o Some key players in the palm oil and cocoa value chains became TFA 2020 partners
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 including SOCFIN and SIAT that both have many subsidiaries across West and Central Africa
states. Also partners from the Cocoa sector such as Touton
o Further we have succeeded in creating and reinforcing the connectivity between CFI and
APOI thanks to the engagement with the World Cocoa Foundation and IDH in the region. This
has helped creating synergies between the palm oil (APOI) and cocoa sectors. A good
number of cocoa sector companies such as Touton, are now TFA 2020 partner. Also many
CFI stakeholders are invited to take part in TFA 2020 events and vice versa including joining
the TFA 2020 calls.
o There is great potential for collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) to
support a deforestation-free palm oil and rubber initiative in Ghana involving TOPP, BOPP
and NORPALM.
Civil society organizations
High level-assessment of engagement
o New recruited partners : Development Institute, OKO Forest
o Identify potential opportunities to deepen engagement
o Any specific challenges related to this stakeholder group

National Governments
Country : COTE D ‘IVOIRE
o We successfully engaged with the new REDD+ Coordinator Col. Ernest Ahoulou whom I met
last month and who sent an important delegation to attend the General Assembly. Mr.
Ahoulou was introduced as TFA 2020 steering committee member during the last call.

Sub-national Governments
SAN PEDRO
o In the framework of the Implementation Dialogue that featured San Pedro zero deforestation
jurisdictional Program, we engaged through in person meeting. We facilitated the discussions with
the President of Conseil Regional and his team in preparation for the jurisdiction to feature in the
General Assembly Implementation dialogue (ID). Focus was on providing clarities about ID,
managing expectations as well as defining the next steps leading to the ID. The jurisdictional
program is building on their ongoing CAZ program that supports the zero-deforestation supply
chain concept in some pilot site.
o There is a potential in seeing this jurisdictional program evolve to a transboundary program
encompassing the Taï-Grebo-Krahn-Sapo Landscape between Liberia and Cote D’Ivoire thanks
to WABiCC and P4F support.

Private sector
o Successfully recruited and engaged: AIPH ( Association Interprofessionnelle de la filiere
Palmier à Huile), ECOTIERRA, SGB a subsidiary of SOCFIN
Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities
o Engaged with the Association des Deplaces representing the local communities of San Pedro
as key stakeholder in the Implementation Dialogue whose president attended the ID and GA.
This association works closely with Societe de Caoutchouc de Grand Bereby Cote D’Ivoire
(SoGB)

National Governments
Country: Liberia
o Successfully engaged with Hon. Mike Doryen Managing Director of the Forestry Development
Authority recently appointed as well whom we met in Monrovia in March. He attended the
General Assembly and was on the Press briefing
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 o We have equally engaged with the newly appointed Liberian minister of Agriculture Hon. Dr
Mogana S Flomo whom we have been in touch with regarding his participation at the GA, but
who had to decline the invitation due to last minute commitments. The minister assistant Francis
Mwah Deputy Director Ministry of Agriculture attended the General Assembly

Sub-national governments
o There are good prospects on engagement at the sub national level through the collaboration
with WABICC, P4F, FFI, USAID, private sector and CSOs.
Private sector
o Engagement has been ongoing with SIME Derby and
Civil society organizations
o Engaged with Conservation International and national CSOs, including SDI, SCNL and
SESDeV
o There were some issues with the functioning of the National palm oil platform in terms,
coordination, communication and CSOs representation. A combined delegation of PROFOREST
and TFA 2020 visited the country in March and facilitated dialogue between the stakeholders.
One of the key outcome of the meeting was that CSO’s are expected to nominate their 5
representatives to sit on the OPWG- the oil palm working group that is hosted at the Ministry of
Agriculture at the follow-up meeting.
Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities
o Similar to subnational government engagement above, there is potential to engage with local
communities through the jurisdictional program envisioned with WABICC

National Governments
Country: NIGERIA

Sub-national Governments
Government Edo State
o A great achievement registered is that the Edu State in Nigeria that became TFA 2020 partner
and whose Governor His Excellency Godwin Obaseki, addressed APOI fourth regional
meeting in Accra. This is the first subnational TFA 2020 partner ever registered by in Africa.
Private sector
o SIAT

National Governments
Country: CAMEROON

o Though Cameroon Government through the ministry of Agriculture is engaged with TFA 2020, the
country is yet to officially become TFA 2020 partner.
o In spite of many attempts to engage with the main focal point the Director of Agriculture in the
ministry of Agriculture Mrs. Caroline Mebande with whom many meetings were held including in
Libreville, Yaoundé and recently during the General Assembly here in Accra. The process of
Cameroon signing the letter of partnership with TFA 2020 may be stalled by the expected review
and signing of the National strategy for sustainable palm oil. Mrs. Mebande promised that the
situation will be resolved pretty soon.
Sub-national Governments
o .
Private sector
High level-assessment of engagement

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 o Specific successes related to either engaging existing partners or recruiting new partners
o Identify potential opportunities to deepen engagement
o Any specific challenges related to this stakeholder group
Civil society organizations
o WWF Cameroon
Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities
High level-assessment of engagement
o Specific successes related to either engaging existing partners or recruiting new partners
o Identify potential opportunities to deepen engagement
o Any specific challenges related to this stakeholder group

Key Milestones 1 July 2017-30 June 2018

Below you will find a list of key milestones, such as convenings /meetings, events, bilateral or multilateral
meetings of strategic importance that took place during this reporting period.

- August 2017 Accra

A regional consultation meeting was held in Accra Ghana to collect regional perspectives for the TFA 2020
publication Commodities and Forests 2020 Agenda. During this we contributed to highlight in the
publication priority areas for Africa Agriculture such as: include cocoa production as a primary driver of
deforestation, the need to improve smallholder yields, addressing land and tree tenures and access to
finance.

- TFA 2020/APOI Africa Regional Meeting

Representatives from government, private sector and civil society from fifteen countries came together on
12 and 13 October 2017 for the APOI Initiative’s third regional workshop in Libreville, Gabon. The Prime
Minister of Gabon His Excellence Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet and his cabinet opened the Regional
Meeting. The Ten Africa Palm Oil Initiative (APOI) country teams were joined by international civil society
organisations, as well as private sector representatives, keen to engage in the process of the development
of sustainable palm oil in West and Central Africa.

The Government of Gabon issued a renewed statement of commitment to become a leader in the
production of sustainable palm oil. The Cocoa and Forests Initiative was introduced to the community to
encourage the alignment of efforts focused on deforestation in the cocoa and palm oil supply chains.

General Assembly 2018

11th – 13th May: The TFA 2020 General Assembly kicked off with field visits that provided participants the
great opportunity to learn from ongoing deforestation-free initiatives.

On May 14, TFA 2020 organised an Implementation Dialogue alongside the GA that featured two
jurisdictional programs: the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP) and the San Pedro Zero-
Deforestation Program.

TFA 2020 successfully convened its third General Assembly on the 15th and 16th of May 2018 in Accra
Ghana under the theme ‘Sprint to 2020’. Speakers at the event were the Minister of Environment and two
deputy Ministers of the Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Also the TFA 2020 Director Dr Marco
Albani, Ambassadors of Norway and British High Commissioner addressed the audience; while the British
Minister of State of Foreign Affairs gave a video-address. In total, about 260 participants coming from the
government, private and Civil Society Organisations and indigenous people representatives took part in the
Public day (15).

The Key-note speech on the state of the forest was given by Frances Seymour while the equally very
inspiring closing remark was presented by M. Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International.
Highlights of the program included panel discussions that shed light on issues such as, how to accelerate
action through high impact and effective partnerships ; Solutions marketplace that gave the opportunity of
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the TFA 2020 Community to showcase initiatives implemented around the world that aim at removing
deforestation from commodity supply chains.

The May 16 Partner Day focused on the key priorities of TFA 2020 work in the course of the coming years
and highlighted the necessity to focus in the case of Africa region on addressing issues such as illegality,
land tenure, promoting jurisdictional approach and improving smallholder farm yields.

On the 17th May, Proforest organized the fourth APOI Africa regional meeting whose opening speech was
made by TFA 2020 new member the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki.

From the feedback we get, the General Assembly week was a success and there seem to be a renewed
momentum amongst stakeholder as can be seen from follow-ups. For example we have been approached
for follow up of the Implementation dialogues outcomes as highlighted below.

Concrete Outcomes of Implementation Dialogue

The TFA 2020 Second Implementation Dialogue for Africa featured two jurisdictional programs: the Ghana
Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP), and the San Pedro Zero-Deforestation Program.

The GCFRP has been accepted into the pipeline of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s Carbon Fund,
and the aim is to use carbon finance to provide up-front funding for jurisdictional programs that promote
sustainable agriculture, beginning with cocoa but spreading to other commodities.

The San Pedro program is primarily funded by the German Development Bank (GIZ) through the CAZ
program and is built around the San Pedro Strategic Development plan. The idea is to anchor the National
Agricultural Zero deforestation policy, the APOI principles, the CFI Framework of Action plan and RSPO to
the plan.

The Dialogue resulted in some expression of interest for further support – including the possibility of using
project-based carbon finance to generate funding for early action in the GCFRP and an inquiry from the
West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA-BICC) program regarding a partnership with TFA2020 to
support a biological corridor that would link the Tai National Park (Cote d’Ivoire) to Sapo National Park in
Liberia through a jurisdictional program. This inquiry has the potential for evolving into a transboundary
cooperation for sustainably managing the Taï-Grebo-Krahn-Sapo Landscape between Liberia and Cote
d’Ivoire.

Further, we attended partners’ events to increase TFA 2020 visibility in the region and mobilize actors
around the commodity deforestation agenda. We Attended 5 workshops including:
-On the 21 November 2017, I spoke on ITC (International Trade Centre) - Green Finance Conference on a
panel «The Key Role of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in Promoting Green Finance and
Responsible Investment’’ where I emphasized the need to mobilize finance for the land use space. Climate
finance should not focus only on renewable energy sources and should include greening commodity supply
chains through sustainably improving smallholders farms yield.
-On 4-6 December interview on National TV in Cote d’Ivoire during APOI event conference in Accra last
February. Likewise, we granted an interview during a workshop in Abidjan in December. Equally attended
and contributed in the design of the CFI framework of action and implementation framework for both Ghana
and Cote d’Ivoire for the Cocoa and Forest Initiative in Accra last month.

Key Accomplishments and Impacts

We have succeeded in creating and reinforcing the connectivity between CFI and APOI thanks to the
engagement with the World Cocoa Foundation and IDH in the region. This has helped creating synergies
between the palm oil (APOI) and cocoa sectors. A good number of cocoa sector companies such as
Touton, are now TFA 2020 partner. Also many CFI stakeholders are invited to take part in TFA events and
vice versa including joining the TFA 2020 calls.

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A strong component of TFA 2020 strategy lies in partner recruitment. Some key players in the palm oil and
cocoa value chains became TFA 2020 partners including SOCFIN and SIAT that both have many
subsidiaries across West and Central Africa states. Also national actors in the sector such as AIPH from
Cote D’Ivoire and local NGOs such as Development Institute equally joined TFA 2020. A full list of TFA
partners can be seen on the link: https://www.tfa2020.org/en/about-tfa/partners/

The 10 West and Central African countries involved in the APOI process are at different stages of
maturation. The first tier of countries composed of Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia, have national
principles for sustainable palm oil production, action plans as well as a national platform in place. These
countries are further shaping their efforts for implementation and have identified a number of activities in
their action plan. Our efforts have been geared towards mobilizing financial support from the TFA 2020
community to support the implementation of those action plans.

In Liberia for example, Conservation International APOI country facilitator has been granted funding by
UNDP, Good Growth Commodity program to support the implementation of the Liberian APOI action plan.
We are looking forward to similar support in the other countries as the enabling conditions for sustainable
palm oil put in place through the APOI process is expected to attract further support.

A few public-private partnerships initiatives, mostly catalysed by the Partnership for Forest P4F with whom
we are working very closely are at various stages of development in the region. We have provided good
visibility to those projects by engaging to proponents to upload their projects on the TFA Initiatives Platform
as well as providing opportunity to showcase and present in Our Solution MarketPlace in order to stimulate
emulation. These projects are: (a) the TOPP/Unilever Buabin II oil Palm Outgrower project that is intended
to increase the supply of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs) for its Twifo Oil Palm Mills while strictly protecting
HCS and HSC areas and adhering to RSPO principles.

The Partnership for Livelihoods and Forest Landscape Management Project (Olam –Rainforest Alliance);
and Ghana’s Cocoa Forest Landscape Governance Partnership (Touton) both of which are looking at
production and sourcing of sustainable cocoa, through climate smart agriculture practices and land use
management while providing alternative livelihoods opportunities for the communities. P4F has equally
funded The Integrated Sustainable Forest Landscape Management project (Form International) which
intends to piloting and upscaling integrated sustainable forest landscape management (ISFLM) with the
general objective: to achieve sustainable forest landscape management in and around the Tain II Forest
Reserve through a Public and Private Partnership.

Another interesting project implemented within this period under review is the USAID funded cocoa project
where WINROCK International partnered with Hershey's and ECOM to combine cocoa tree rehabilitation
with improved tenure security for stranger tenant cocoa farmers. The theory of change of the project is that
tenure security and cocoa tree rehabilitation will both improve cocoa productivity and reduce incentives to
deforestation and forest degradation. The project ended in December 2017 and currently seeking funding
for upscaling and dissemination of lessons learnt. TFA2020 was approached to assist in levering that
funding and did connect the project proponent to P4F, and preliminary discussions for consideration
between the two parties held.

In addition to providing visibility and improving impact through connectivity, we are equally promoting the
jurisdictional approach and achieving an increased awareness around this approach with donors and a
variety of stakeholders through the Implementation Dialogue, thematic discussions on our bi-monthly AWG
calls and through in-person meetings. For example we are in discussion with AFD (Agence Française de
Développement) in Accra, Ghana that in planning a deforestation-free initiative in Ghana involving the
TOPP, BOPP and NORPALM and advising them to consider using the jurisdiction approach on this new
initiative. We will be meeting a team of AFD experts expected in Accra at the end of July 2018 to advise
them further about the approach.

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Communications

Below are links and screen shots of any mentions that TFA 2020 has had in the local / regional media.

https://www.modernghana.com/news/854778/stakeholders-dialogue-to-end-commodity-driven-
deforestation.html

http://www.gabonews.com/fr/actus/agriculture/article/huile-de-palme-le-gabon-a-desormais-ses-neuf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUZVSyNVYFY

http://gabonreview.com/blog/huile-de-palme-defi-de-preservation-forets

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Accra-hosts-top-level-global-forest-
conference-first-ever-in-Africa-651416

https://www.fratmat.info/index.php/economie/production-durable-de-l-huile-de-palme-la-cote-d-ivoire-
evalue-la-mise-en-oeuvre-de-son-plan

Please voir le lien en dessous, relatif à la diffusion sur la RTI (chaine TV publique ivoirienne) du lancement
de la plateforme (à partir de la 27:43 mn)

http://www.rti.ci/Les-jt-sur-rti1_453089526_le-13-heures-de-rti-1-du-07-decembre-2017.html

http://www.ghananewsagency.org/economics/ghana-ups-wealth-and-jobs-creation-drive-through-oil-palm-
production-131788

https://thebftonline.com/2018/commodities/african-govts-urged-to-collaborate-to-reverse-worrying-trend-of-
deforestation-2

https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberia-agriculture-ministry-ci-launch-new-program-to-tackle-
deforestation/

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Potential Risk and Challenges

- The number of countries involved in the APOI (10), which are at varied stages of maturation in the APOI
process, split across two regions with language divide constitute a challenge in terms of size, and
communication for engagement. For instance so far the conference calls are conducted in English making it
difficult for the francophone communities to fully contribute. We would consider holding both ARC and AWG
calls in both English and French that is allowing the participants to speak in either of the two languages.
With regards to the size it may be useful to group the countries in clusters following their stages of
advancement in the APOI process.

- Engaging with private sector has been challenging meaning that we still have to better understand how to
better incentivize these stakeholder category. Working through jurisdictional approach may be a good way
to bringing most companies sourcing out of a region at the table.

- Liberia where large concession where allocated to private companies without proper consultation of the
local communities has slowed down the implementation of current supply chains initiatives in the country
due to community land claims. It is however an opportunity to engage the new government for a solution to
this stalemate.

- There is a high turnover in the region with regards to ministerial positions with the need to re- engage with
the newly appointed government officials and sometime hampering continuity of engagement. We will try as
much as possible to engage with more sectoral ministries to increase our visibility and for synergy of action.

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Annex (Photo Gallery)

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