Sustainable development in the drylands of Africa2 Centre for International Forestry Research...

TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 1

Growing Hope

Sustainable development in the

drylands of Africa

Strategy 2017-2022


Introduction

In 2017 TREE AID will mark its 30th year. During this time we’ve been continuously

working with poor communities to make the most of the tree resources available to

them. It’s a good time to take stock of the world around us and assess where we can

make the greatest contribution to development in the drylands of Africa.

Our world is facing rapidly changing human and environmental challenges. Climate

change, conflict, population growth and migration, and the risk of recurrent climate

related crises present complex challenges and risks to the lives, wellbeing and future

prospects of millions of families.

But in the face of these challenges we are seeing new and

positive opportunities for livelihoods and sustainable land

management emerging. A spirit of cooperation and a call

to action was launched in September 2015 at the United

Nations General Assembly where heads of state adopted

Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development1. This set out 17 Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs) as a plan of action to end poverty and

hunger, protect the planet from degradation, and ensure

human development occurs in harmony with nature. The

SDGs present a momentous chance to focus efforts to

help the poorest people in the world.

Trees and forest resources have a vital role to play in

achieving the SDGs2. Trees and forests in drylands

generate a wealth of benefits. For example, they help

increase the resilience of communities and landscapes in

the face of global change, encourage biodiversity,

protect against water and wind erosion, reduce

desertification, help retain water in soils, and contribute to

soil fertility3.

Alongside the SDGs, during the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change – the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in Paris,

December 2015 - governments agreed a new climate deal that prioritises forests and

landscapes4.

TREE AID’s 2017-2022 strategy builds on these new development frameworks, setting

out clearly TREE AID’s role and how TREE AID’s programmes contribute to achieving

1 United Nations General Assembly (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development, A/70/L.1. 2 Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). 2016. CIFOR Strategy 2016–2025: Stepping up to

the new climate and development agenda. Bogor, Indonesia: CIFOR 3 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2015. Global guidelines for the

restoration of degraded forests and landscapes in drylands: building resilience and benefiting

livelihoods, by Berrahmouni, N., Regato, P. & Parfondry, M. Forestry Paper No.175. Rome, FAO. 4 UNFCCC - Need to cite reference here

What are Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs)?

In September 2015, the heads of state at

the United Nations General Assembly

adopted 17 Sustainable Development

Goals or SDGs, in a call to ‘end poverty,

protect the planet and ensure that all

people enjoy peace and prosperity’.

These SDGs are an update of the

Millennium Goals drawn up by the UN in

2000. Each country agreed to play their

part in making the new goals a reality.

What do they cover?

SDGs cover issues such as poverty,

hunger, equality and justice – and

importantly now cover climate change

and environment too. The idea is that all

these areas are interlinked, and need to

be tackled together.

Why are they important?

SDGs are ambitious but they have a real

impact on what governments think and

do now. This means that, for organisations

like TREE AID, there are new opportunities

to take action.


core elements within these wider goals, reducing poverty, and protecting the

ecosystems within our beneficiary communities.

Who We Are

TREE AID is a specialist international development organisation headquartered in the

UK with operations in five countries within West and East Africa. We believe that the

conservation, restoration and management of trees and forests is essential to create

income opportunities for poor communities, combat climate change, and prevent

desertification.

We empower poor rural communities to make the most of the tree resources available

to them. We help them build the knowledge and skills necessary to manage trees and

forests effectively in order to achieve higher incomes, deliver improvements in their

environment, create additional sources of food, and become resilient to

unpredictable weather patterns.

We bridge the gap between policy and practice, and work with both government

and communities to develop and implement good forest governance that secures

access and rights to tree resources for poor rural communities.

TREE AID’s Vision, Mission and Values

What We Do

Life is tough in the drylands of Africa, home to approximately 325 million people.

Our vision

Thriving communities across the drylands of Africa where trees sustain livelihoods and

enrich the environment.

Our mission

To enable people living in the drylands of Africa to unlock the potential of trees to

reduce poverty and protect the environment.

Our values

We incorporate our values throughout our work:

We stand together with and respect the people we work for and with. We

recognise that we play one part in a large collective effort to facilitate

sustainable development.

We are bold, ambitious, determined and impatient for change.

We are professional. We work effectively and efficiently, to a high standard and

are experts in our field.

We have integrity. We are honest, transparent and accountable.

We are always learning. We review and adapt to maximise our impact.


Drylands are characterised by a scarcity of water and people living there rely heavily

on natural resources through farming for their survival, which, when compounded by

growing population, poor access to technology, and unsustainable production

practices contribute to land degradation.

The Sahel has suffered drought for hundreds of years

causing regular food shortages. Deforestation is happening

at an alarming rate as poverty drives communities to cut

down trees for firewood and to make way for farm land.

Climate change is increasingly causing unpredictable and

devastating weather patterns, such as the 2014-2016 El Nino,

coupled with land degradation this is now a cause of food crisis across Africa. As

populations grow and economies develop demand for agricultural land and wood

fuel increases, and deforestation often follows.

Who We Work With

We work with the poorest people – people with few resources, who rely on small

plots of land to grow food to eat and sell. Often the most vulnerable use produce

from wild trees to supplement their diet and give them extra income.

We recognise that women rely on trees the most, so are most deeply affected by the

vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. Traditional laws can prevent

women from owning land and taking part in community decision making yet the

traditional division of labour means they are responsible for feeding the family, finding

the firewood, and fetching water. As trees disappear the time and energy spent

working by women increases.

How We Work

TREE AID exists to help communities break the circle of poverty and environmental

degradation in these very poor countries. Working through local partners who

understand local challenges our expert staff offer practical knowledge and policy

solutions that support the sustainable use and management of trees and forests.

Across our work, we see how climate change is leading to changing, unpredictable

weather patterns that put poor people’s livelihoods at risk. So we have to be flexible

and adaptable, responding to sudden shocks while helping people find ways to cope

with the everyday impact of climate change on their lives and their environment.

IN MALI IT IS ESTIMATED

THAT AN AREA OF FOREST

THE SIZE OF 750,000

FOOTBALL PITCHES IS CUT

DOWN EVERY YEAR.

Based on Global Forest Resources 2010

Main Report (FAO)


Our Contribution to Sustainable Development

The good news is that increasing global interest and investment in forestry for

sustainable development creates new opportunities to develop programmes and

influence policy.

The announcement of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development in September

2015 (the SDGs) and the subsequent convention on climate change (COP21) in

December 2015 firmly placed focus on forest and landscapes as a priority for

sustainable development. These frameworks highlight the central role that forestry

plays in climate regulation globally.

The Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Ghana and Ethiopia governments are embracing the

forest focus. As part of the African Union they have made significant progress since

the approval of the Great Green Wall Initiative in 2005 and are some of over 20

countries currently signed up to it 5. The Great Green Wall has grown in scope, trees

have been planted and the wall of trees concept has become a vehicle for a wider

goal; countries in the region working together to tackle climate change, food security,

and economic growth.

TREE AID will play its part in achieving the SDGs, aligning our programmes where we

can make the biggest contribution.

5 Algeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali,

Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, The Gambia and Tunisia.

Four key themes

TREE AID’s work focuses on four interconnected themes:

Enterprise development and trade – supporting communities to link with local and

international markets and achieve the best price for the tree products they sell.

Agroforestry and natural resource management – sustainably using resources

such as trees, land and water to enable communities to develop while protecting

the environment.

Forest governance – ensuring communities have access to and rights to use the

trees that they rely on for their survival.

Food security and nutrition – using trees to improve resilience and, through

education, change behaviour to encourage dietary diversification by

consumption of edible fruit, seeds, nuts and leaves as part of a healthy diet.

These themes are interconnected, working together to bring about the social,

economic, and environmental changes that we want to achieve.


A Look Back on our Previous Strategy

Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the dedication of our staff and partners

in Africa, during our 2014-2017 strategy we have reached more people and planted

more trees than ever before.

In 2015-2016 alone we worked with over 200,000 women and men, and planted or

regenerated over 1.3 million trees on 65,000 hectares of land.

Taking control locally

We’ve played a leading role in the development of forest governance in Burkina

Faso, supporting the government to begin devolving responsibility for forest

governance to eight local authorities and successfully working between those local

authorities and communities to ensure people have access and rights to use forests

and responsibility to care for them.

Spreading our influence nationally

We have established subsidiaries in Burkina Faso and Ghana, and have increased

our visibility with policy makers and partners. This has led to strategic partnerships

with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Centre for International Forestry

Research (CIFOR), and other international charities, and we’ve been awarded

observer status to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. We’ve expanded

our programme into Niger and started restoring river banks along the Bongo in

Ghana and been instrumental in conserving the ancient juniper forests of Amhara in

Ethiopia.

The SDGs TREE AID is focussing on are:

Goal 1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Goal 8 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth,

full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Goal 13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Goal 15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial

ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and

halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.


What We Will Achieve

Our performance to date gives TREE AID a strong platform from which we can

continue to innovate and tackle issues of poverty and environmental decline in

Africa’s drylands.

TREE AID will make even greater impact over the coming five years as we scale up

our work. We will reduce poverty, plant and regenerate trees, increase community’s

resilience to climate change, and empower women.

By 2022 we aim to be directly helping 300,000 households a year.

Objective 1: Improve incomes and nutrition for poor households

We will support the growth and development of Village Tree Enterprises (VTEs) and

Forest Trade Associations (FTAs) and work with communities to include tree products

as part of a diversified diet.

Why is this important?

Research shows that where rural communities control forests, they are able to reduce

deforestation and manage forests sustainably. A crucial constraint, however, is the

isolation of individual forest producers from each other as well as from markets,

sources of finance, policy makers and information. Forest producers can overcome

isolation by organising themselves into forest producer groups, or VTEs, that enable

their members to share labour, benefit from efficiencies of scale, and have more

bargaining power6.

Despite these benefits, forest producer organisations are not yet as common as similar

groups in agriculture. As the production cycle from forests is slower than from

agricultural land use, growers need support to engage in the expensive business of

planting trees or managing forests until their investment starts to show a return.

6 AgriCord and FAO (2012). Strength in Numbers. Effective forest Producer organizations.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/ap452e/ap452e00.pdf

Between 2014 and 2017:

we reached more people doubling the number we work with each year –

219,000 people in 2015-2016.

we protected forests planting or regenerating over 1.3 million trees a year

and conserving over 65,000 hectares of land.

we increased incomes especially for women, who make up more than half

of our tree entrepreneurs.

we developed businesses creating thousands of village tree enterprises

that add value to tree produce.

we created jobs including over 22,000 job equivalents through our Forest

Governance programme in Burkina Faso.


Evidence suggests that children in Africa who live in areas with more tree cover have

more diverse and nutritious diets. Tree cover can affect the nutritional quality of diets

in at least three possible ways:

People living near forests could have greater access to nutritious wild foods

than people who don’t; such foods might include wild fruits, leafy greens,

grubs, snails, and bush meat.

Households that plant or harvest agro-forests on their land may benefit from

increased access to fruits and nuts from trees.

It is possible that the agricultural techniques used in more forested areas, such

as shifting cultivation, might be more conducive to diversified and nutritious

diets since such practices often involve multiple crops7.

This is an area where research is limited and we aim to advance understanding.

What we will do

TREE AID’s role is to mentor, train and accompany start up VTEs and give them the

skills, tools and equipment they need to establish themselves. We then help them to

develop networks as FTAs and to start saving so they can connect to a number of

markets and find the best possible price for their tree products, and reinvest in their

enterprises so they can continue to grow.

Over the years we’ve been helping VTEs through delivery of the Market Analysis and

Development training programme. In this strategic period we will expand our

approach to include full value chain analysis and work increasingly with buyers and

processors to identify the best opportunities for entrepreneurs. We will partner with the

private sector to support the growth and development of market opportunities and

will help enterprises that are ready to scale up to link to micro-credit schemes so they

can further invest in their businesses.

We will develop a tree foods programme and train communities to integrate tree

foods into their diet and we’ll support farmers who want to diversify into agro-forestry.

We will measure success by:

Reach:

number of Village Tree Enterprises (VTE) and Forest Trade Associations (FTA)

supported

number of households participating in VTEs and FTAs

Impact:

increased household income

increased income from forest products

number of jobs created

increased dietary diversity

7 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378013002318


Objective 2: Protect and restore tree cover and improve resilience

to climate change

We will help poor and vulnerable communities to restore degraded land through

planting and regenerating trees.

Why is this important

People living in the drylands of Africa have coped with intermittent droughts and food

shortages for thousands of years but a combination of population growth,

unsustainable farming practices, demands for fuel wood, and increasingly frequent

drought and floods are causing rapid land degradation. Without major interventions

to address climate change and land degradation the livelihoods of millions will be at

serious risk.

There is now reasonable agreement from a number of different sources, including the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4)

that Africa is at the highest risk from climate change, given the magnitude of existing

stresses in the continent8.

Natural resource management such as planting and restoring trees can help to

remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and address land degradation in

Africa’s drylands and promote biodiversity. This could have huge benefits globally for

mitigating against climate change because of the drylands large area and current

low carbon content.

What we will do

TREE AID’s role is to help people gain access and rights to forest resources in their

communities. We work with local government and community groups to develop

community forest management plans. We also train communities in forest

management techniques, such as assisted natural regeneration, and establish

community tree nurseries and tree planting campaigns.

During this strategic period we will expand our programme to address increasing

demands for fuel wood and sustainable management of woodlots to provide

sustainable sources of fuel wood to communities. We will also expand our work with

schools so that young people are learning the skills to sustainably manage forests from

an early age.


Reach:

number of trees planted and percentage survival

number of trees regenerated

number of community forest management plans implemented

Impact:

increased area of land (hectares) under sustainable forest management

8 (IPCC, 2007a)


increased species diversity

Objective 3: Influence decision makers, policy and practice

We are passionate promoters of the many benefits trees have in reducing poverty in

Africa’s drylands and we are constantly learning from our programme of work.

We want to share our learning, expertise, and passion with others, and influence the

development of forest policy that helps supports access and rights for poor people.

Why is this important

Achieving the ambitious goals included in the SDGs requires a collective effort by

governments, civil society and business.

The most significant contribution we can make is to share our learning and expertise

with others to promote innovation.

We will influence and shape forest policy to ensure that the opportunities and

challenges faced by poor rural communities, who don’t often have the opportunity

to inform policy processes, are taken into account by government during decision-

making.

We will encourage donors to invest more of their funds in sustainable forest

management to achieve greater reach and impact.

What we will do

During our previous strategy we’ve worked closely with the government of Burkina

Faso in support of decentralisation of forest governance. We will expand our support

for decentralisation in Burkina Faso over the next five years and expand this approach

into Mali, Ghana and Niger.

Over the last three years we have developed collaborations with a number of

research institutes including the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Centre for

International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and our programmes have become part of

broader learning initiatives that build a body of evidence for support. We will continue

to work with these institutions to develop learning.

Over the next five years we will increase our profile with the Great Green Wall Initiative

and be more active in networks that bring together development partners from

government, civil society and private sector, such as the Global Shea Alliance, to

promote the interests of poor rural communities.


Reach:

number of research projects delivered

number of presentations at technical forums

increasing restricted donor profiles and volume of restricted funding

generated


Impact:

number of local, regional and national policies that have been influenced and

implemented

Cross Cutting Issues

We are committed to ensuring that at least 50% of the people benefiting from our

programmes are women and that a significant proportion of beneficiaries are youth.

Women contribute the majority of labour to community work, growing food, and

collecting firewood but they seldom receive equitable pay or support for the work

that they do. TREE AID’s programmes are committed to addressing inequality and

creating opportunities for women to take on decision-making roles and prosper.

Similarly young men and women face difficulty in obtaining paid employment so we

will endeavour to create employment opportunities through VTE membership.

We will monitor our commitment by:

collecting gender and age data for all beneficiaries registered with TREE AID

projects.

monitoring the percentage of leadership roles held by women in community

and enterprise groups.

monitoring the percentage of women reporting changes in equity in

household decision-making.

How We Will Achieve Our Objectives

Successful partnerships are central to TREE AID’s approach. We actively seek local,

national and international partnerships with community based organisations, non-

governmental organisations, local and national government departments, and

private sector to deliver our programmes.

New technology and growth in renewable energy provide opportunities for Africa’s

rural poor to reduce dependency on wood for fuel. We will partner with organisations

that offer complimentary approaches and skills to achieve sustainable development.

Over the next five years we will make adjustments to our partner mix to reflect the

focus of our objectives including:

Increasing collaboration with:

o private sector that are engaged in the marketing, sale and export of

tree products

o membership led FTAs as a vehicle to mentor and develop VTEs

o international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to develop joint

programmes with greater impact and to share funding and resources

in programme delivery for greater efficiency

o renowned research institutes to build our evidence base and promote

learning


Continue working with local government and national forestry departments to

implement decentralisation of forest policy and ensure our learning is informing

the development of policy.

Changing partnerships to focus our work with community-based organisations

(CBOs) where sustainable forest management is a significant proportion of

their overall programme.

We will continue to operate in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali and Niger. When

selecting locations for projects within those counties we give careful consideration to

particular criteria to ensure that we are working in areas where we are most needed

and can make the most difference to people’s lives. Increasing insecurity has become

an issue across our programme countries and we also take into consideration risks that

may be associated with working in particular locations.

The criteria we apply are:

What are the poverty levels?

Is there evidence of environmental stress?

What systems of forest governance are in place and how effective are they?

Are there other government or non-government activities in the area that are

already providing the support that TREE AID would bring?

Is the area accessible and secure for staff to be posted there and for partners

to work without threat to their safety or major disruption to projects?


Our Theory of Change

The pathway between the approaches we take, the results that we want to achieve

and their contribution to the broader SDGs and our vision is presented below.

Fig 1: Theory of Change

Africa’s drylands are home to approximately 325 million people. The drylands populations rely heavily on natural resources th rough

farming for their survival, which, when compounded by growing population, poor access to technology and unsustainable product ion

practices contribute to land degradation and increasing levels of poverty.

Thriving communities across the drylands of Africa where trees

sustain livelihoods and enrich the environment

Improved forest

policy and

investment in

sustainable forest

management

Improved resilience

to climate change,

tree cover restored

Improved incomes

and nutrition

Women’s and youth

empowerment

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Strengthening forest

governance and

access rights

Building skills in

natural resource

management

Improving

food security

and nutrition

Developing

enterprises and

strengthening value

chains

Improved

access and rights

Increased land

area under

sustainable

management

Increased

income

Increased

employment Improved dietary

diversity


Remaining Fit for Purpose

Delivering on our revised strategic objectives effectively and efficiently will require

changes in how we operate and we need to ensure we have the right skills and

support structures in place.

1. Culture and people

We will continue to embed a performance culture based on our values and a

commitment to results in all areas of the organisation.

We will continue to grow our technical expertise to ensure we deliver to the highest

standards.

We will create efficiencies by strengthening cross-team working to provide

opportunities for learning across countries and themes.

2. Processes

We will further develop our finance and management information systems to ensure

we are efficient in support of programme delivery.

We will build our monitoring and evaluation capacity to ensure learning informs all our

work and so we can continue to build the case for investment in trees.

We will systematically establish baselines and end-lines for all projects.

We will remain adaptable to a rapidly changing context and adjust our plans to best

meet the needs of the communities we work with.

3. Programmes

We will focus on balance in programme portfolios to ensure an integrated approach

across themes. Our country programmes will each develop a country level strategy

plan with project development aligned to country strategy.

We will invest in Ethiopia to improve operational oversight.

We will grow our project pipeline in all countries.

We will expand our forest governance and enterprise programmes across countries

and incorporate a value chain approach fully into our enterprise programming.

We will address emerging concerns in natural resource management including

increased demand for fuel wood.

We will invest in research to trial and document new initiatives and provide evidence

of success.

4. Financing our work

To support our ambition of reaching 300,000 households per year by 2022 we plan to

more than double our income from £2 million in 2016-2017 to £4.5 million by 2022. This

increase in income will enable us to grow our programme and increase our impact

across our operations.


The funding environment for UK charities is changing. UK political commitment to 0.7%

GDP for international development remains in place but the priorities are shifting with

increased focus on humanitarian crises, security, resilience and trade. However, we

do not want to be overly reliant on a few institutional donors and plan to expand and

diversify our funding base.

This will be achieved by:

partnering with non-UK based international NGOs

bidding for contract work as well as grants

continuing to develop corporate engagement

continuing to grow income from trusts and foundations

exploring fee based consulting services

exploring emerging models for payments for ecosystem services

To achieve this target we will focus efforts on leveraging our unrestricted income to

grow restricted income and increase our institutional income at a faster rate than our

public fundraising income. The increasing interest in sustainable development and

tackling climate change gives us confidence that this is possible.

Public fundraising in the UK continues to stagnate. Increasing regulation and changes

in fundraising practice will reinforce the trend. We will maintain our UK fundraising base

and incrementally grow our unrestricted fundraising through targeted donor

recruitment and retention campaigns.

We will proactively seek partnerships with other international NGOs where TREE AID

can add value to grant or contract bids and increase the volume of funding through

consortium and collaborations.

New funding models are emerging to facilitate payments for ecosystem services

where ecosystems such as forests provide carbon sequestration services. The drylands

of Africa have high potential for carbon sequestration.

www.treeaid.org TREE AID is a registered charity, no. 1135156, and a company limited by guarantee, no. 03779545, incorporated

in England. Registered office: Brunswick Court, Brunswick Square, Bristol BS2 8PE.

http://www.treeaid.org/

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