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Agency’s Project ID: P0 87411 GEFSEC Project ID: 2093 Country: Regional (Coastal countries in Sub-Saharan Africa) Project Title: Strategic Partnership for a Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund in the Large Marine Ecosystems of Sub-Saharan Africa, Tranche 1 GEF Agency: World Bank Other Executing Agency(ies): TBD for Individual projects Duration: 10 years (Nov 2005 – December 2015) GEF Focal Area: International Waters GEF Operational Program: OP#8 – International Waters – Waterbody-based; and OP#2 – Coastal, Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems GEF Strategic Priority: IW-1: Catalyzing financial resource mobilization for implementation of reforms & agreed actions Pipeline Entry Date: June 12, 2003 Estimated Starting Date: November 2005 |
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Project Executive Summary GEF Council Work Program Submission |
Contribution to Key Indicators of the Business Plan:
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Record of endorsement on behalf of the Government(s): |
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Focal Point endorsement will be received for individual projects supported by the Partnership Investment Fund |
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Financing Plan (US$) | |
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GEF Project/Component | |
| Project: (Nov 05) |
25,000,000 13,000,000 |
| PDF A |
0 |
| PDF B |
670,000 |
| PDF C |
0 |
Sub-Total GEF |
25,670,000 |
Co-financing* | |
| GEF Agency |
0 |
| Government |
0 |
| Bilateral |
0 |
| NGOs |
0 |
| Others |
75,000,000 |
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Sub-Total Co-financing: |
75,000,000 |
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Total Project Financing: |
100,670,000 |
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Financing for Associated Activities If Any: | |
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Leveraged Resources If Any: | |
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*Details provided under the Financial Modality and Cost Effectiveness section |
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Approved on behalf of the World Bank. This proposal has been prepared in accordance with GEF policies and procedures and meets the standards of the GEF Project Review Criteria for work program inclusion | |
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Steve Gorman Executive Coordinator, The World Bank |
Project Contact Person: Christophe Crepin (World Bank) Tel. and email: 202-473-9727, ccrepin@worldbank.org |
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Date: October 7, 2005 |
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Project Summary
The continuing decline of many fisheries and fish resources throughout the Large Marine Ecosystems of Africa, and the livelihoods that depend on these fisheries, as well as the loss of marine biodiversity, underline the urgency of assisting coastal African countries to create systems of sustainable governance and utilization of fish resources. Specifically, the five target LME’s identified in the SSA region are the Canary Current (West Africa); Guinea Current (Gulf of Guinea), Benguela Current (Namibia, Angola, South Africa), Agulhas Current (continental shelf shared by South Africa, Mozambique, Comoro Islands, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius) and; Somali Current (Tanzania, Kenya, Somali). Total marine production from the LMEs seems to have reached a plateau since the early 1990s, and the number of overexploited and depleted stocks is rising throughout the region.
The pressures on the marine biodiversity and fisheries resources supported by the LMEs of SSA, and particularly the resulting imbalance between catches of fish and sustainable production levels, have been highlighted by the Regional Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture as a priority for the African Union (AU), as well as in the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) agenda developed by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). However, while the existing fisheries governance regimes, including the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, the WSSD, and the NEPAD-CAADP, have provided a mandate, technical direction and targets for sustainable fisheries in the LMEs of SSA, there are still very limited financial resources to implement these mandates. Additionally, the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations created by the countries themselves, in some cases with the assistance of FAO, lack adequate funds to assist individual coastal countries to implement the needed governance reforms in fisheries. Thus, in many coastal countries of SSA, governments still do not have the capacity to take control of their own resources and prevent overexploitation, and specifically to regulate access to these resources and protect the critical habitats that support them.
In response to this decline in Africa and the rest of the world’s oceans and its related implications, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) called on all nations to meet defined targets for sustainable fisheries and poverty reduction over the next 10 years, and also called on developed nations and multilateral institutions to provide assistance to developing countries to meet these targets.
In further response, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World Bank have proposed a Strategic Partnership for a Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund in the Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) of Sub-Saharan Africa in order to generate the funds to help countries bordering the LMEs in the region meet the WSSD fisheries and poverty reduction targets.[1] The Strategic Partnership has been developed and prepared in full coordination with both the Implementing Agencies and the individual program managers for the LME Programs. This preparation has included several conference calls to discuss progress, a meeting between the planning partners (FAO, WWF and the World Bank) and representatives from the LME programs in Dakar in January 2005, and subsequent to a phone conference in July 2005, the draft Partnership Brief was distributed in advance to all of the LME programs and IAs for their review.
Significantly thus, this Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund (i.e. the Partnership Investment Fund) is part of a larger Partnership that encompasses the Investment Fund, the GEF-sponsored Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) Programs, and a coordinating mechanism to promote interaction and synergy between the two, which will be financed by an MSP grant (see Annex 3 of the Brief). Coordination between these elements and IA partners will be achieved through a Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) comprised of the AU, Regional Fisheries bodies, 2 civil society organizations, UNEP, UNDP, FAO and WWF (see section C.1 of the Brief for further details).
The Partnership is based on the model of the Danube/Black Sea Basin Strategic Partnership approved by the GEF Council in May 2001 (GEF/C.17/7), and the subsequent two tranches that were approved in May 2002 and May 2003. Based on that model, the GEF investment in the proposed Strategic Partnership for a Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund in the Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) of SSA will be US$60 million (disbursed in 3 tranches over 10 years). This Partnership Investment Fund will be available to co-finance single country, single sector projects aimed at helping countries in SSA meet the WSSD fisheries targets and poverty eradication goal. The Partnership Investment Fund will be co-financed through the World Bank’s Global Program for Fisheries (PROFISH); IDA credits and IBRD loans and through other interested multilateral and bilateral donors. As a co-financing ratio of one GEF dollar to three donor dollars is being targeted by GEF, the total anticipated funding volume of the Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund is US$240 million.[2]
Objective of the Investment fund
The common Global Environmental/Development Objective of this Strategic Partnership is to promote the sustainable management of fisheries resources in the five LMEs of Sub-Saharan Africa in order to assist coastal countries to make concrete progress towards achieving the fisheries and poverty reduction targets set by the WSSD. This objective combines the sustainable use of fisheries resources and the marine ecosystems that support them, with the need for effective poverty alleviation and sustainable income growth of fishing communities in SSA.[3]
The two broad results indicators of the success of the Strategic Partnership in achieving the Global Environmental/Development Objective are based on the WSSD targets:
- Sustainable use of fisheries resources achieved in at least 10 countries in the LMEs of Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015; and
- Poverty alleviation and vulnerability reduction in coastal and fishing communities in at least 10 countries of-Saharan Africa.
The more specific objectives of the Strategic Partnership are to:
(i) Accelerate country-level investments and actions in the fisheries sector in accordance with the WSSD fisheries targets and consistent with the emerging priorities of the GEF-sponsored Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) Programs, in order to assist individual coastal countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to undertake the necessary governance (i.e. policy, legal, and institutional) reforms and sector adjustments to sustainably manage their fisheries in a way that ensures a distribution of benefits that will contribute to poverty reduction and food security;
(ii) Assist individual coastal countries to build the capacity to participate in the ongoing GEF-sponsored LME Programs and other regional and sub-regional initiatives as well as collaborate through these projects to implement management measures for the marine ecosystems and the transboundary fisheries resources and/or fishing fleets that would be more appropriate at the sub-regional scale (e.g. sub-regional monitoring, control and surveillance systems, management of fishing capacity, sub-regional research initiatives, networks of marine protected areas (MPAs), etc.);
(iii) Promote learning, information exchange and capacity building at the regional level, to ensure that the lessons from successes and failures of country and LME level investments are adequately disseminated; and
(iv) Encourage direct financial support to the fisheries sector in order to meet the sustainable development objectives in fisheries and a reduction in poverty.
Progress towards achieving the specific objectives will be measured quantitatively on a project/country basis and aggregated to the regional level. However, the types of results indicators that would be used by each project have been identified. These are presented in a generic form in section B.2 and Section C.5 (pgs 25-26) of the Brief.
Global Environmental benefits: The targeted five LMEs possess a wealth of globally significant marine biodiversity and habitats that provide the coastal countries of SSA with some of the world’s most fertile fishing grounds, many of which are transboundary in nature (with either the fish stocks or the fishing fleets migrating regularly across national boundaries, or both). In that context the Strategic Partnership has been proposed in order to reverse the depletion of fisheries in the LMEs of Sub-Saharan Africa, and to assist the individual coastal countries bordering these LMEs to meet the fisheries and poverty reduction targets set by the WSSD. The biodiversity aspects are expanded to better protect and manage globally significant fisheries resources, including the genetic resource value of that biodiversity. Thus some of the potentially significant environmental benefits would include sustainable use of globally important species and ecosystems, improved management of transboundary species, improved information regarding international fish stocks, sustainable financing of transboundary fish stock monitoring and of near-shore biodiversity, decreased post-harvest losses etc. Other notable globally beneficial implications also exist since in most coastal countries in SSA, the conservation efforts in the fishing sector supported by these LMEs will be a major contributor to rural income and employment, attract considerable local and foreign investment and contribute significantly to food security.
Also under the Partnership Investment Fund, the county-level investments in the LMEs would build the capacity of coastal countries in SSA to implement policy and institutional reforms needed at the national level, which will meet the global targets for sustainable fisheries and poverty reduction set by the WSSD, and as well as support monitoring, surveillance and enforcement of national and international laws and regulations with regard to fisheries and the ecosystems that support them, thereby enabling the countries to more fully collaborate with and participate in the ongoing GEF-funded regional LME projects. In line also with the principles of the treaty of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the investments would overall assist coastal countries in SSA to build their capacity to sustainably manage fisheries resources, while utilizing an ecosystem-based approach that recognizes the importance of the marine and coastal habitats that support these fisheries. In addition, the partnership of stakeholders will promote lessons learned from the individual projects throughout the region, in order to encourage replication and the prioritization of sustainable fisheries in national development policies such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, as well as the development planning of the donors. Thus overall, if the Strategic Partnership is successful, the fisheries resources in the LMEs bordering at least 10 SSA countries, i.e. the global environmental good, will be replenished to sustainable levels by the end of the Partnership, and the poverty and vulnerability of the communities dependent on these resources will be measurably reduced.
The implementation of the Partnership Investment Fund will be advised by a group of regional stakeholders, through a Regional Advisory Committee, including regional fisheries management organizations, the GEF-supported Large Marine Ecosystem Programs, private sector and civil society organizations, donors and others, as appropriate – i.e. the Strategic Partnership. The Partnership will also facilitate regional learning exchanges and coordination between country-level investments and the Large Marine Ecosystem Programs, as well as other stakeholders. Thus on a broader level, the Strategic Partnership for a Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund in the Large Marine Ecosystems of Sub-Saharan Africa will function as a stakeholder-driven regional funding mechanism.[4]
The types of country-level projects/investments that could be potentially supported by the Partnership Investment Fund are mentioned below.
· Strengthening or improving sector governance (i.e. policy, legal, and institutional reforms) to sustainably manage fisheries in a way that ensures a distribution of benefits that will contribute to poverty reduction and food security.
· Strengthening stakeholder consultation processes and institutions for fisheries governance at the national and local level.
· Promoting the conservation of ecologically important areas for fisheries and the wider marine environment in general.
· Strengthening resource management systems for industrial and international fishing fleets.
· Supporting industrial fishing effort reduction programs and promoting alternative livelihoods to fishing.[5]
· Supporting the creation and/or expansion of co-management programs and area based management programs for small-scale fisheries.
· Freezing and/or reducing small- and medium scale fisheries fishing effort where and when necessary and compensating or otherwise assisting those affected.
· Strengthening the effectiveness of local and national Monitoring, Control and Surveillance of fisheries.
· Strengthening the institutional and financial effectiveness of Ministries, fisheries extension services, fisheries training institutions and research institutes.
· Providing direct financial support to meet the sustainable development objectives in fisheries.
· Integrating fisheries in national poverty reduction strategies.
· Building the capacity to participate in the ongoing GEF-led LME projects and other regional and sub-regional initiatives to implement management measures for the marine ecosystems and the transboundary fisheries resources.
Further details of each type of investment are provided in the Brief (section C.2). Also for more concrete examples of the types of country level projects that the Partnership Investment Fund would support, see Annexes 4 and 5. Annex 4 provides a description of the Tanzania Marine and Coastal Environment Management Project (MaCEMP), the first project that will receive GEF co-financing under the Strategic Partnership (but not as part of the current request of US$60 million). The second project, from Senegal, is among the first proposals that will be submitted for support from the Partnership Investment Fund.
Additionally there are a set of eligibility criteria that have been developed for selecting the investments/projects (see section C.3 of the Brief). In summary these are:
· As the context for the proposed project, the country must complete and endorse the Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template (see Annex 3 of this Brief), describing the country’s long-term vision for a sustainable fisheries sector and its contribution to poverty alleviation, as well as the key activities needed to achieve that vision, including those that are or would be supported by other donors, and those that would be supported by the Strategic Partnership.
· The proposed project must identify ongoing or planned donor initiatives affecting the country’s fisheries sector, and demonstrate how the project would complement and not overlap with them, e.g. the LME Programs.
· The proposed project must demonstrate that GEF funds will be used to cover the incremental costs of activities with environmental benefits that extend beyond national borders.
· The proposed project must demonstrate that project financing meets the three (donor dollars) to one (GEF dollar) co-financing ratio.
· The proposed project should be consistent with and support the implementation of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and be in line with the Operating Principles of the Strategic Partnership that have been developed for the project through broad stakeholder consultations. For details of the operating principles please see
Box 1, pg 23 of the Brief.In addition to the outputs and results indicators that will be used to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the regional activities and country-level projects, a World Bank-led review of the tranche will be used to track when enough progress has been made during the first tranche to proceed to the second. As the Implementing Agency, the World Bank will make a specific request to the GEF Council for disbursement of the second tranche (following the model of the Danube/Black Sea Basin Strategic Partnership), with a Progress Report that includes the results of the Independent Evaluation conducted by the RAC, as well as any additional evaluations carried out by the World Bank. To track progress a benchmark has been developed based on the expectation of a 2 to 3 year first tranche, in consideration of realistic targets for this time period. This benchmark for when enough progress has been made to proceed to the second tranche, will be that at least 75 percent of the GEF funds allocated for the Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund during the first tranche have been committed.
The specific components of the Strategic Partnership will include:[6]
Partnership Investment Fund, i.e. Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund
1. Country-Level Projects: the Project Cycle for Investments co-financed by the Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund (i.e. Partnership Investment Fund): This component will aim to implement the first two specific objectives listed above, encouraging country-level investments and assisting individual countries to build the capacity to participate in the LME Programs. The output from this component will be at least 10 country-level projects to assist SSA coastal countries to meet the fisheries and poverty reduction targets set by the WSSD. For each country, the basic project cycle will include: (i) project selection; (ii) project design (preparation); and (iii) project implementation. More specifically, each country level project (sub-project/investment project) receiving GEF funding from the Partnership Investment Fund would go through the following project cycle, in compliance with the existing rules and procedures of the World Bank and GEF:
(i) The Country prepares a Project Concept Note (including the Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template) in line with the Operating Principles and Eligibility Criteria of the Strategic Partnership, with upstream analytical and technical support provided as needed (e.g. from PROFISH or any other organizations or groups). At this stage, the Country and Project Concept Note should give an indication of the likely sources of co-financing, although firm commitments would not be required yet;
(ii) The Country submits the Project Concept Note, with the Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template, to the World Bank as the Implementing Agency;
(iii) The World Bank sends the Project Concept Note and Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template to the RAC for comments and advice;
(iv) The World Bank submits the Project Concept Note (if PDF-B is needed the Concept note includes PDF-B request) and Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template to the GEF for approval on a fast-track rolling basis, after giving full consideration to any comments from the RAC;
(v) Once the Project Concept Note has been approved, the World Bank will notify the Country and the Country can avail GEF Block B preparation grant of up to US$350,000 (and/or if application had not been made along with the concept note then PDF-B application can be submitted for preparation work);
(vi) The Country prepares a detailed Project Brief and submits it to the World Bank along with GEF focal point endorsement letters. At this stage, i.e. the Project Brief, firm commitments for the required co-financing, a STAP review and the incremental costs analysis will be included.
(vii) The World Bank submits the Project Brief to the GEF for approval. Projects will not be submitted to GEF Council for approval through standard work programs but go to GEF CEO for endorsement following streamlined procedures.
(viii) Once approved by GEF, the Project Document (PAD format) will be processed to the World Bank Board of Directors for final approval through expedited streamlined procedures.
(ix) Once approved by the GEF, and the World Bank’s Board of Directors, the World Bank will send the approved Project Document to the RAC for information;
(x) The implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Project will begin; and
(xi) The results and any monitoring and evaluation findings of the Project will be sent to the RAC as inputs to its regional monitoring and evaluation function.
All project proposals (i.e. Concept Notes with the Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template) will be reviewed based on merit and their compliance with the eligibility criteria described in section C.3. of the Brief. Provided that project proposals meet the criteria, they will be given priority by the Strategic Partnership on a first-come, first-served basis.
Strategic Partnership
2. Regional Coordination, Communications and Capacity-Building: This component will aim to implement the third and fourth specific objectives above, in order to promote learning, information exchange and capacity building at the regional level, and encourage direct financial support to the fisheries sector as a result of good practices and lessons learned. The output will be dissemination of the lessons from successes and failures of country and LME level investments (i.e. to at least 75 percent of SSA countries), as well as the scale of replication throughout the region and the inclusion of sustainable fisheries in key development policies and strategies such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the World Bank Country Assistance Strategies. This includes the following sub-components: (i) coordination; (ii) communication; (iii) linkage and cohesion with LME programs; and (iv) mobilization of co-finance.
3. Monitoring and Evaluation: The output from this component will be the information necessary to measure the success of the Strategic Partnership towards achieving its Global Environmental/Development Objective and the more specific objectives. This includes the following sub-components: (i) project level (processes); (ii) country level (results); and (iii) program level (results)
1. Country Ownership
a) Country Eligibility
The Strategic Partnership will act to support and complement, but not duplicate, existing initiatives, allowing multiple Implementing Agencies for the GEF to work together according to their comparative advantages. The Partnership Investment Fund will encourage country-level investments in the LMEs of SSA, which would complement the ongoing GEF-led sub-regional LME Programs. These investments would build the capacity of coastal countries in SSA to implement policy and institutional reforms needed at the national level in order to meet the targets for sustainable fisheries and poverty reduction set by the WSSD, as well as to support monitoring, surveillance and enforcement of national and international laws and regulations with regard to fisheries and the ecosystems that support them, thereby enabling the countries to more fully collaborate with and participate in the ongoing GEF-funded regional LME Programs. All SSA countries that will benefit from these investments will be those that have ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).[7]
b) Country Drivenness
The Strategic Partnership model will ensure that the country-level investments made by the Partnership Investment Fund will be linked to national fisheries sector strategies and key development plans, including Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, World Bank Country Assistance Strategies and Strategic Action Programs produced by the LME Programs. The project cycle for the country-level projects receiving support from the Strategic Partnership has been designed so that proposed activities will be linked to these strategies and support a programmatic approach to sustainable fisheries, together with the LME Programs and other donors. More specifically, each project concept note will include a Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template that clearly describes the ongoing and planned donor activities and development strategies for the sector, and how the proposed project fits within that vision and complements these activities.[8] Additionally individual country level investments will also perform an incremental costs analysis and be reviewed by the STAP.
2. Program and Policy Conformity
a) Fit To GEF Operational Program and strategic priority
The rationale for support of the Strategic Partnership through the Waterbody-based Operational Program (OP8) is that the fisheries resources in the large marine ecosystems of Sub-Saharan Africa are both poorly governed and often transboundary in nature. Furthermore, the activities within the Strategic Partnership will contribute directly to meeting the targets of the International Waters Strategic Priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically to IW#1: Catalyze financial resources for implementation of agreed actions (e.g. WSSD fisheries targets) and IW#2: Expand global coverage of foundational capacity building.[9]
b) Sustainability (including financial sustainability)
Each country-level project supported by the Partnership Investment Fund will include a sustainability and replication plan in the design, in order to ensure that the outcomes of the projects supported by the Partnership Investment Fund are sustained. In terms of the regional Strategic Partnership activities, e.g. the coordination between countries and LME Programs, the dissemination of lessons learned from different projects, and the promotion of sustainable fisheries as a development priority throughout the region, these activities will be sustained by the African Union long after the completion of the Strategic Partnership. By serving as the Chair of the regional group of stakeholders that will form the core of the Strategic Partnership, the capacity of the African Union to take a leadership role on sustainable fisheries in the region will be significantly enhanced over the 10 year span of the Strategic Partnership. The African Union is expected to remain the leading regional voice for African nations, and by building up the levels of staff, training and individual success stories at the disposal of this institution, the Strategic Partnership will have empowered the African Union to permanently serve as a leading advocate for sustainable fisheries in the region.[10]
c) Replicability
One of the key objectives of the Strategic Partnership is to promote the replication of successful reforms and management measures implemented by countries with the support of the Partnership Investment Fund. Towards this objective, the Strategic Partnership will formulate strategies to replicate successful projects and examples throughout the region, for example by utilizing existing resources such as the GEF-sponsored International Waters Resources Center (IW:Learn Program) and website (www.iwlearn.net) to share the lessons from one country-level project supported by the Partnership Investment Fund with other current or prospective projects, or to assist the wider LME Programs to promote the reforms made by one country more broadly throughout the LME.[11]
d) Stakeholder Involvement
Stakeholder participation is one of the central features of the Strategic Partnership, since inception and at the level of individual countries, LMEs and the entire SSA region. At the outset in order to ensure this concept for a stakeholder-driven regional funding mechanism would fit within regional inter-governmental agreements as the WSSD, the AU priorities, the NEPAD CAADP, the strategies of the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations and the ongoing LME Programs, the Strategic Partnership was prepared through wide consultations within the region. The process began when the First Consultative Workshop with stakeholders from throughout the region was convened by FAO, the World Bank and WWF (i.e. the planning partners) in Dakar, Senegal, 18-20 January 2005. The meeting attained broad agreement on the goals and objectives of the Strategic Partnership and its operating principals, as well as on eligibility criteria for country level projects to be supported by the Partnership Investment Fund. A Second Consultative Workshop was convened by FAO, the World Bank and WWF in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania, 22–24 June 2005. This second meeting subsequently attained broad agreement on a project cycle that would ensure stakeholder input into a portfolio of roughly 10 to 12 national level projects aimed at assisting coastal SSA countries to implement the WSSD fisheries and poverty reduction targets. The meeting further agreed on the governance framework for such a stakeholder-driven regional funding mechanism. Details annexed at 6 and 7 of the Brief.
Overall, the Strategic Partnership will be guided by the priorities and needs of the coastal countries themselves, in order to build their capacity to sustainable manage the fisheries of the LMEs. These priorities and needs will be reflected in the Sector Strategy and Stakeholder Participation Template (see Table 1, Annex 2 of the Brief) that will be completed and attached to each Concept Note submitted to the World Bank for support from the Partnership Investment Fund. This Template has been designed to ensure that project proposals to the Partnership Investment Fund clearly reflect the countries’ own vision of sustainable fisheries and the key priority actions to achieving that vision, as well as the various stakeholders involved in the fisheries and the degree of consultation the Government has with them. By completing the Template, countries submitting Concept Notes to the Strategic Partnership will have already identified and consulted with key stakeholders in the sector. At the regional level, the Strategic Partnership will allow stakeholders (including the LME Programs) to advise the World Bank and GEF on the design of country-level projects to be supported by the Partnership Investment Fund, representing a commitment by the World Bank towards enhanced stakeholder participation in project design.[12]
e) Monitoring and Evaluation
In order to monitor progress towards achieving the Global Environmental/Development Objective and four specific objectives, the Strategic Partnership will solicit the collection of data for the key results indicators, through the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) by: (i) aggregating the results of the individual country-level projects supported by the Partnership Investment Fund, and (ii) conducting an independent evaluation roughly every three years on the impact of the regional activities. While the specific objectives and results indicators will be designed on a project-by-project basis, some indicative project objectives and indicators that would likely be included in many of the types of projects described in section C.2, have been developed and elaborated in the Brief. Details for the M&E plan are provided in section C.5 of the Brief.
Furthermore, the Strategic Partnership will hold a mid-term ‘stock-taking’ review meeting after year 5 with representatives from all of the coastal countries in SSA. This meeting would allow the members to report on the progress of the Strategic Partnership towards meeting the Global Environmental/Development Objective and four specific objectives, and to make any ‘mid-course corrections’ that might need to be taken. In addition, a defined benchmark has been developed to track when enough progress has been made during the first tranche of the Strategic Partnership to proceed to the second. This benchmark for when enough progress has been made to proceed to the second tranche, will be that at least 75 percent of the GEF funds allocated for the Sustainable Fisheries Investment Fund during the first tranche have been committed. As the Implementing Agency, the World Bank will make a specific request to the GEF Council for disbursement of the second tranche (following the model of the Danube/Black Sea Basin Strategic Partnership), with a Progress Report that includes the results of the independent evaluation conducted after year 3, and also the progress towards achieving the benchmark.[13]
3. Financial Modality and cost effectiveness
Projects under the partnership are yet to be determined and therefore the issue of co-financing is still in the stage of finalization. This will be done for individual projects.
Co-financing Sources | ||||
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Name of Co-financier (source) |
Classification |
Type |
Amount (US$) |
Status* |
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Various sources of finance under discussion |
N/A |
N/A |
75,000,000 |
Under negotiation |
4. Institutional Coordination and Support
a) Core Commitments and Linkages
The proposed Strategic Partnership responds to the declining health of marine fisheries and biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa that has been highlighted by the Regional Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture as a priority for the African Union (AU), as well as in the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) agenda developed by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The Strategic Partnership will be linked to both AU and NEPAD, as well as to the ongoing efforts of the GEF-sponsored LME Programs. At the national level, projects funded by the Partnership Investment Fund will be developed in coordination with the LME Programs, and will also be proposed in the context of their linkages to ongoing donor initiatives in that particularly country (as one of the key eligibility criteria for support from the Fund).
The Strategic Partnership is also consistent with the goals of the World Bank’s Environment Strategy to support sustainable development, reduce poverty, and improve quality of life by removing the environmental constraints to economic development, and empowering people and societies to manage their environmental recourses. It is also consistent with World Bank’s Rural Strategy, which reflects and reinforces the Bank’s commitment to the UN Millennium Development Goals. At the regional level, it is consistent with the Regional SSA Environmental Strategy and the Africa Region’s Rural Strategy, which emphasizes enhancing the management of natural resources.
b) Consultation, Coordination and Collaboration between IAs, and IAs and ExAs, if appropriate.
The Strategic Partnership will act to support and complement, but not duplicate, existing initiatives, allowing multiple Implementing Agencies for the GEF to work together according to their comparative advantages. Significantly, this Strategic Partnership has been developed in consultation with the Implementing Agencies and Executing Agencies of the GEF-sponsored LME Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, and aims to help link the activities of these Programs into national development policies through the ongoing dialogue between countries and the World Bank, as well as to help individual countries implement the fisheries-related actions contained the Strategic Action Programs for each LME. Throughout the course of the preparation of the Strategic Partnership, several meetings were held with the IAs and ExAs of the LME Programs. For example, a small meeting was held in Dakar with several representatives from the LME Programs, which agreed that the LME Programs would be represented at the regional level in the Strategic Partnership, and then would also coordinate in terms of individual country level activities as well (see annexes 6 & 7 of the Brief).
c) Project Implementation Arrangement
The implementation arrangements for the Partnership Investment Fund, will include the following partners:
· The Global Environment Facility will contribute US$60 million over the next 10 years in three tranches, for a Partnership Investment Fund to co-finance activities at the country level to promote sustainable fisheries management (for GEF-eligible issues based on a set of approved eligibility criteria) for both local and transboundary fisheries resources, in order to meet the WSSD fisheries and poverty reduction targets. These activities will be co-financed at a ratio of US$1 GEF to US$3 by the World Bank and other donors, per each tranche of GEF funding.
· The World Bank will be responsible for preparing the country-level investments by use of the Bank’s ongoing country dialogue (for example through the Country Assistance Strategy process), helping to co-finance these investments with IDA and IBRD financing instruments, and serving as the Implementing Agency for disbursing the GEF funds from the Partnership Investment Fund. Both FAO and WWF will assist the World Bank as implementing partners, on a project-by-project basis.
· Other bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors will also help co-finance country-level activities on a country-by-country basis.
· The Global Program for Fisheries (PROFISH), housed at the World Bank, will provide small grants from a multi-donor trust fund (separate from the GEF and not including the Partnership Investment Fund) in order to support countries to prepare the necessary upstream analytical work and Concept Notes in order to access the Partnership Investment Fund.
The Partnership Investment Fund will be advised by a Strategic Partnership of stakeholders in the region, who will conduct activities at the regional level, such as facilitating the exchange of information and lessons learned among projects and LME Programs, and monitoring and evaluation. This Strategic Partnership will consist of a Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), which will operate as an advisory body and be served by a small Secretariat. The RAC will review Concept Notes and undertake coordination and replication activities, as well as sharing lessons learned between various projects and LME Programs. The RAC will be chaired by the African Union, and will include representatives of the Implementing Agencies for the LME Programs (as well as staff from the Executing Agencies), the Regional Fisheries Bodies, civil society organizations, FAO, the World Bank, WWF and additional donors and organizations to be determined.
The RAC will be serviced by a small Secretariat, whose overall role will be to support the RAC to provide assistance to countries for preparation of proposals; conduct communications, coordination and exchange of information from lessons learned; inform countries, stakeholders, potential co-financiers, and other relevant parties of the objectives and requirements of the Strategic Partnership; and prepare of annual reports, progress reports, work plans and budgets. Through a phased approach, this Secretariat will eventually be established in the African Union, funded (along with the costs of the RAC) by a GEF Medium-Sized Project Grant for each tranche of the Partnership Investment Fund. However, during the first tranche, FAO will be requested to provide secretarial services to the RAC and its Chair the African Union. In addition, FAO and WWF will be requested to provide support in communications, awareness building and information dissemination of the Strategic Partnership.[14]