Moving from project to program at the national level is never a small task, but FAO recently supported two important workshops towards this goal. The workshops addressed the institutionalisation of the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and Bangladesh forest inventory (BFI). The institutionalisation of these programs is fundamental to ensure their permanent contribution to key national plans and strategies such as SDG’s, 7th five years workplan, Country Investment Plan for Environment, Forests and Climate Change sectors, and REDD+. The workshops were organized under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on 25 and 27 November at Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) with strong collaboration with several national entities including Department of Environment, the leading national entity for the preparation of a national GHG inventory.
These workshops are steps that build on the extensive work already undertaken between BFD and FAO for the preparation of the GHG inventory  for the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector with the financial support from the UN-REDD Bangladesh National Programme and USAID.  Since 2015, over 350 national officers have been trained under the UN-REDD Bangladesh National Programme and BFI on several topics such as field measurement, remote sensing, data management, statistical analysis, plant species identification, biometry, allometric equation, and many others. All training materials and proceedings as well as participant list and feedback from the internal evaluation will be made available under the forthcoming Bangladesh Forest Information System.
In total 50 participants from 30 institutions participated in the workshop on GHG inventory and 30 from BFD participated in the workshop on the BFI. A second workshop will be organised with key government partners to ensure the BFI remains a multisource, multipurpose and multilevel national forest inventory. Indeed, the BFI already benefits from stakeholder inputs that ensure the data collected by field teams can be used to meet stakeholder needs and objectives.
Dr Matieu Henry, Chief Technical Advisor, FAO Bangladesh, highlighted the importance of the institutionalisation process to ensure the sustainability of development actions. Mr. Abdullah Al Mohsin Chowdhury, Secretary, MoEFCC stated that efforts should be taken to improve the existing institutional arrangements and capacities to build a robust Measurement Reporting and Verification system. Dr. Sultan Ahmed, Director General, Department of Environment, emphasized the need to establish permanent institutional arrangements with adequate resources to facilitate the preparation of national communication reports and ensure consistency over the years. Finally, Mr. Mohammed Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, Chief Conservator of Forests, BFD stated that data sharing mechanisms such as the data sharing policy prepared by BFD are important in the institutionalization process.
The BFI is a major source of information for the preparation of SDG indicator 15, FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment, planning activities for the Sustainable Forests & Livelihoods (SUFAL) Project, and landscape restoration activities in Cox’ s Bazar. By formally strengthening its relationship with other national entities and establishing a data sharing policy, the Bangladesh Forest Department is leading a process that provides more robust information to decision makers for sustainable forest management and conservation. As the institutionalisation of these programs is linked to national plans and strategies, they are key for ensuring the Government of Bangladesh is properly prepared in their goal to transition to a middle-income country.