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Objective and Participants: The African ForestryPolicy Forum was convened under the sponsorship of the World Bankand UNEP to facilitate in-depth discussions of high-quality casestudies of the new forest policy agenda implementation experiencein Sub-Saharan Africa. It did not aim at achieving consensus onsome final statement but rather, was designed to be a learningevent for all participants, who were representatives from theAfrican public and private sectors, NGOs, and academic community,and international donor organizations. The meeting was a follow-upto the meetings the World Bank organized in Abidjan (with theAfrican Development Bank), and Nairobi (with UNEP) in April 1994to discuss the draft Forest Sector Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa(published as World Bank Technical Paper 251 in English and French),and was the result of an initiative of the participants at the'94 Nairobi meeting.
A New Forest Policy Agenda: The meeting was devotedto the theme of lessons learned from implementation of a new forestpolicy agenda increasingly adopted by many African countries.The new policy agenda calls for governments to increasingly focuson policy making, planning, and regulatory roles, while progressivelywithdrawing from tree planting, production, and other forestryactivities that can be carried out more efficiently and equitablyby the private sector and local communities. It also argues thatgovernment responsibility for forestry activities could be inthe form of providing financing and not necessarily executingthese activities.
Outcome: The Forum meeting was successful in showingthe practical results that can be achieved if governments arewilling to unleash the creative energies of the private sector,local communities and NGOs, and their own forestry agencies. About40 case studies were presented, grouped under four main themes:Policy and Legislative Reforms; Farmer/NGO/Local Community Participation;Private Sector Participation; and Capacity Building. The themesnot being mutually exclusive, some case studies are listed undermore than one theme.
Follow-up: It is hoped that this Forum becomes thefirst of a series on the same subject. The participants expressedtheir interest and need to have sub-regional meetings every 18to 24 months to update colleagues on their forest policy implementationexperience, share breakthroughs, good practice, and lessons learned.UNEP and the World Bank are now looking for African institutionsto take over responsibility for future sub-regional Forum meetings.
Information Dissemination: At this stage, the summariesof the case studies presented are posted here in English, whilethe full text is posted in the language in which the case studywas presented at the Forum. A french version of the summarieswill become available at a later stage. A World Bank Paper ongood practice in forestry policy implementation in Sub-SaharanAfrica, based on the Forum findings, is in preparation.
