Profor Funding Criteria

Criteria for PROFOR Engagement In order to be eligible for PROFOR funding, any activity must meet the criteria set out in Table 1 below. In short, these criteria assure that an activity meets PROFOR’s strategic objectives and is relevant to one of the thematic areas outlined above. Table 1: Criteria for PROFOR engagement

Criteria

Components

Relevance to PROFOR’s thematic areas and objectives

Clear relevance to one of the four thematic focus areas: • Potential of the sector to contribute to economic development and poverty alleviation (especially regarding extreme poverty and indigenous groups) • Potential to address governance related issues and challenges in the forest sector which seriously limit its contribution to broader sustainable development objectives and strategies (e.g decentralization, major conflicts of interests between various actors, accountability problems) • Potential to improve internal revenue generation and attract investment in improved forest management • Potential to contribute towards cross sectoral and macroeconomic development objectives and strategies through forests

Feasibility, significance and sustainability of the work

• Concept is unambiguous, with a clear focus and an attainable objective •

Plan for effective dissemination of results

• Indication of the initiative’s sustainability (follow-up strategy, fund leveraging, integration, likelihood of upscaling, etc.) Reputation and capacity of applicant organization

• Applicant organization is a recognized / legitimized entity in the development community or by the host country(ies)

Strong national/ international demand and political will for partnership with PROFOR (for proposals with country or region specific elements)

• Strong capacity and willingness of the involved country(s) to act as a focal point or active promoter in forest related regional or sub-regional fora for direct exchange of experiences

• A high degree of confidence that the initiative’s proponent will deliver on the outputs and outcomes described in the concept note

• Sufficient political commitment to address/engage in a constructive dialogue on the issues and constraints identified as key for PROFOR engagement • Willingness to initiate necessary policy reviews and strategic planning processes focused on identified issues • Willingness to set up appropriate structures and mechanisms for stakeholder participation (e.g. consultative mechanisms, participatory planning processes, conflict resolution mechanisms etc.) in analysis and dialogue on the issues •

Willingness to share information at national and international levels

• Integration within identified national forest program activities and country priorities • Priority given to the PROFOR thematic issues in the NFP process/sectoral policies/sectoral plans and programs Relevance to donor priorities

• Compatibility with donor priorities and, where relevant, developing possible synergies and leverage from linking PROFOR activities to donor programs in-country

Relevance to broader World Bank country programs, to take advantage of access, leverage and synergies which will result from such coordination

• Activities which complement on-going economic policy and country dialogue, and major structural adjustment or programmatic operations which may impact on the forest sector or be influenced by potential developments in forests • (and/or) Activities which complement on-going or planned forest sector lending or forest related issues-based lending, IFC activities, other activities of the Bank’s Global Partnership Programme, and/or major GEF funding • (and/or) Activities which complement major on-going or planned investments in other sectors which may impact on the forest sector (e.g. mining, dams, roads, agricultural/rural development)

Potential for: (i) significant gains in knowledge, (ii) high applicability to a wide range of situations, and (iii) high potential for effective dissemination

• Clear definition of problems where analytical work will have high likelihood of success in producing improved performance in the four thematic areas

Scale of impact of suggested activity on forest conservation and development outcomes

•

Potential for influencing broad/global policy dialogue

•

Potential for significant poverty reduction

• Interest in promoting and facilitating a broad-based dialogue with all important groups of governmental and civil society stakeholders, and in special efforts to support the participation of marginalized groups (e.g. the rural poor) • Ability to generate tangible outcomes or results (analytical work, policy papers, tools etc.)

• Potential for forest sector and/or forest governance reforms developed to be implemented in support of broader sustainable development goals •

Potential for leveraging new and innovative SFM financing

• Potential of suggested activities to protect or enhance key local and global environmental services or values through NFP processes Funding (including other funding sources) and detailed timeframe

• Mention of whether counterpart funds exist and / or significant leveraging of counterpart or donor funds foreseen • Proposal stays within the indicative PROFOR funding levels (40,000150,000 USD) and the implementation schedule coincides with PROFOR’s operating timeframe • Acknowledging if alternative, more appropriate sources of funding for the proposed initiative exist