6 November 2013: The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (UN-REDD) has released the forty-second edition of its newsletter, which highlights the launch of Phase II of Viet Nam’s REDD+ programme.

The newsletter notes the ongoing partnership between the governments of Norway and Viet Nam, including a US$30 million grant to begin the implementation of on-the-ground REDD+ activities.

The newsletter also highlights the approaches used to engage stakeholders in REDD+ in the Republic of South Sudan as well as an upcoming exchange tour to Cambodia to build capacity for stakeholder engagement among REDD+ countries in Asia-Pacific. Also in Cambodia, the newsletter reports on a workshop on gender mainstreaming and the engagement of women in REDD+.

With regard to events, the newsletter highlights the workshop on safeguards and multiple benefits in Nairobi, a ‘REDD+ talk’ on the engagement of the private sector, the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the UN-REDD programme, and a workshop on national forest inventories in Asia-Pacific.

Finally, the newsletter reports on the participatory governance assessment (PGA) in Ecuador, and legal preparedness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Kenya. [Publication: UN-REDD Newsletter #42 October 2013]