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NFP Facility Partnership

Nigeria Nigeria

The partnership between the NFP Facility and Nigeria was finalized in 2002. The Partnership Agreement aims to: (i) revive the dormant nfp process in the country; (ii) develop a new National Forest Policy and a new National Forestry Act with stakeholder participation; (iii) integrate the new National Forest Policy into Nigeria's poverty reduction strategy, called the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS); and (iv) develop a new approach to and strategy for community based forest management (CBFM). In 2002 and 2003, the Facility supported meetings of the National Forestry Development Committee (NFDC) and stakeholder meetings at the sub-regional level, leading to a new draft National Forest Policy and Forestry Act.

In 2009, following an assessment and evaluation conducted using the nfp-Matrix of outputs and impacts of the first seven years of work, the NFP Facility and Nigeria renewed their commitment to working together on the national forest programme process through the signing of a new Partnership Agreement. The new Agreement seeks to address constraints in three interrelated areas of the nfp process: (i) production of the national guideline on Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) as a policy strategy for SFM, using as inputs the outcome of the 1st Agreement's experiences and lessons learned from the CBFM pilot studies; (ii) development of a national forest information system for enhanced production and dissemination of basic forest information to strengthen stakeholder participation and inter-sectoral linkages; and (iii) improvement of environmental awareness, monitoring and evaluation of the nfp process. These three components are crucial to both the national poverty reduction strategy and the national economic empowerment and development strategy (NEEDS). Indeed, CBFM is one of the strategies identified to promote the implementation of the newly approved Forest Policy. It is thus imperative to ensure that the process (started in the first Agreement of the Facility partnership) leading to the development of the National Guideline on CBFM is pursued in a participatory way. Similarly, relevant information useful for the smooth development of the nfp process must be identified and strategically collected, processed and disseminated. This is what the National Forest Information System (NFIS) component intends to achieve. The third component on Environmental Awareness, Monitoring and Evaluation aims at (i) enhancing the participation of civil society in the nfp process; and (ii) increasing public and political support through mobilization and awareness creation about the importance of the forest sector to the national economy and the everyday lives of Nigerians. Another key component of the new Partnership Agreement is the implementation of regular monitoring and evaluation of Nigeria's progress and accomplishments by a monitoring team.

Points of Contact

23 Dec 2011

Assessment of the nfp

In order to assess the progress and status of the nfp process, the Facility and FAO have designed a matrix to provide a clearer picture of how the country nfp processing are evolving, which elements are well developed and which elements remain weak and in need of further attention. The matrix has been tested in the countries to ensure the relevance of its indicators.

The matrix contains indicators for each phase of the nfp process: analysis, policy formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The indicators are clustered according to the primary nfp principles: country ownership, inter- and intra-sectoral linkages, partnerships and participation.

The matrix below was completed by stakeholders, in a participatory way, during a national workshop.

Each indicator was rated as follows:

the indicator has not been developed
the indicator is absent from the country nfp process
the indicator exists but is incipient
the indicator is progressing well within the country nfp process
the indicator is completed to the country’s full satisfaction - can serve as a model for others to follow

Implemented Activities