Department for International Development (DFID)

Department's overall responsibilities and interests in forestry

DFID is the British Government Department responsible for promoting international development and the reduction of poverty. The policy of the Government was set out in the White Paper on International Development which was published in November 1997. The central focus of the policy is a commitment to the internationally agreed target to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, together with associated targets including basic health care provision and universal access to primary education by the same date.

The FRP is one of eleven knowledge programmes in DFID's Renewable Natural Resources Knowledge Strategy (RNRKS) currently working in the decade 1995-2005. The aim of the RNRKS is to generate new knowledge in natural and social sciences and to promote the uptake and application of this knowledge to sustain livelihoods of poor people through better management of renewable natural resources. The management of RNRKS programmes has been contracted out to mostly university-based institutions. The FRP is currently managed by Natural Resources International Limited at Chatham.

Current mechanism for consultation and setting of research priorities

The RNRKS prescribes logical frameworks which encapsulate the goals, purposes, outputs and activities of each programme. The same hierarchy is cascaded to a project level, such that the goal of a project is the purpose of the FRP. In practice, the aims and objectives of the FRP are set partly by the Natural Resources Research Department of DFID, and partly by participatory surveys and reviews in the DFID forestry partner countries. Currently, there are 15 partner countries, or groups of countries. The sieving process for determining priorities in the partner countries is:

a) What are the documented national priorities in problems of management of forest resources?

b) For which of these problems is the national capability to solve the problem inadequate?

c) For the inadequately served problems, what other donor support is currently being provided?

d) For the remaining inadequately served problems, is there a UK-based capability to make a meaningful contribution to problem solution?

The FRP strategy evolves as DFID forestry partner countries change and as the requirements of the countries are refined through national development strategies.

Development of the strategy is assisted by contracted thematic leaders (specialists in their disciplines and with wide and deep experience overseas), and by a Programme Advisory Committee. DFID rules ensure that the PAC has broad subject coverage as well as practical experience of research and development overseas.

DFID is increasingly concerned to ensure that research has measurable developmental impact. New projects are equipped with monitorable milestones and verifiable indicators of outputs. Some projects are subject to output-to-purpose reviews. A special FRP project is examining the particular problems of assessing developmental impact over the usually long period between the initiation of forestry research and its evident impact on target institutions; a particular problem is attribution of contributions to effects among several or numerous groups working on different aspects of a major problem.

The FRP is a competitive grants programme. There is one major call for concept notes each year. Those who pass the concept note stage are invited to prepare full proposals. Project memoranda are now usually refined through project initiation workshops in the developing countries, to ensure that collaborators and target institutions are fully aware of the objectives and will commit resources to carrying out the project alongside the UK-based institutions. As the FRP operates within a fixed budget set by DFID, the promotion and uptake of research results depends upon stimulating the interest and commitment of the developing country institutions as much as possible during the lifetime of each research project.

Outline of funding mechanisms

The FRP budget is assigned by DFID/NRRD on a rolling basis within each 4-year contract period for the management of the programme. Most of the budget is committed to the individual research projects but small proportions may be used for the strategic development of the programme (including demand surveys and project initiation workshops). Another small proportion may be used for dissemination of results from series of projects around a common theme, or for the translation of academic outputs into other media such as training videos, posters and extension manuals. The FRP projects use an increasingly diverse range of media for distributing research results.

FRP may co-fund with other programmes within the DFID/RNRKS, or with other funding agencies.

FRP is also now able to contract with tropical forestry research institutions within the EU.

Contact points for further information

DFID centrally-funded Forestry Research Programme

Natural Resources International Limited
(street address) Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB
(postal address) PO Box 258, Chatham, Kent ME4 4PU

Telephone:

• Programme Manager: 01634 883365
• Programme Administrator: 01634 883081

Fax: 01634 883937

E-mail: j.r.palmer and h.l.tilburn

50-word summaries of individual research projects, together with contact details for project leaders, are available from the FRP Administrator, and may also be found on the NRIL Website.

This Website is also linked directly to the UK Tropical Forestry Forum.