December 2013: The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) has released its 2013 Annual Report, which offers a strategic review of FCPF’s main achievements related to intermediate impacts, strategic outcomes, and short-term outputs in its fifth year of implementation.

The report also contains key findings regarding current issues and challenges, monitoring of assumptions and risk, and the Facility’s 2013 Fiscal Year Report. In contrast to earlier reports, the 2013 report is structured according to the FCPF Program Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework, as adopted by the FCPF Participants Committee (PC) during its 14th Meeting held in March 2013, to systematically track the Facility’s performance by collecting, analyzing, reporting, and using key data at every level.

Highlights in the report include the approval of the Readiness Assessment Framework to support countries with measuring and communicating progress on REDD+ readiness. According to the report, 32 of 36 FCPF countries have had their Readiness Preparation Proposal assessed, with the 2013 submissions demonstrating a steady increase in quality over past years.

The report also contains information on the Facility’s provision of finance, technical support, and knowledge to help countries advance in the REDD+ readiness process. Support includes the advancement of country policies and systems for adopting REDD+ readiness strategies under the FCPF’s Readiness Fund, and the development of a Methodological Framework (MF) to govern its US$390 million Carbon Fund (CF), designed to pilot performance-based payments for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. Together, the two funds, the Readiness Fund and the CF have raised $648 million.

The report further describes the Facility’s outreach efforts with indigenous peoples and civil society, working on social inclusion, including through a series of capacity-building workshops and the approval of 15 small grants of over US$1.2 million.

Key lessons in the report include that: REDD+ methodological issues require a balance between simplicity and robustness; readiness and design of pilot emission reductions programs can advance in parallel; and the Readiness Assessment Framework informs all stages of readiness.

The FCPF is a global partnership of government, private sector, civil society and indigenous peoples focused on supporting REDD+ readiness, finance and implementation. The FCPF consists of the Readiness Fund, which provides grant financing to countries to develop and implement national strategies for REDD+, and the Carbon Fund, which is meant to provide payments upon verification that emissions have been reduced. The World Bank is the Trustee of the Readiness Fund and the Carbon Fund, and provides secretariat services through a Facility Management Team. [Publication: FCPF 2013 Annual Report] [IISD RS Story on the Adoption of the Methodological Framework] [FCPF Website]