The GFOI Capacity Building Summit was held at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu Nepal from 18 to 22 September 2017.

The Summit was attended by representatives from international organizations and REDD+ countries alike. It provided an opportunity for partners of the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) to reflect on progress to date in forest monitoring capacity building efforts and discuss the way forward. REDD+ country representatives were also trained in the use of GFOI’s REDDcompass, a valuable tool for identifying needs and remaining gaps in national measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) processes for REDD+.

Participants discussed the need for capacity building efforts to be aimed directly at priority country needs and delivered according to the unique circumstances of each country. The GFOI’s MGD should be used as the centerpiece of capacity building activities and REDDcompass is a valuable resource for systematically identifying gaps and needs. There is a need to develop more sophisticated means to facilitate coordination between partners’, including through a global inventory of capacity building activities and possibly harmonized work planning.

The Summit produced a set of draft principles for good practice capacity building. Amongst other outcomes, these principles will seek to align international support with priority country needs, enable more efficient coordination between partners and monitor progress. These principles will be finalized in the coming weeks and are proposed to form the basis of capacity building activities under GFOI’s second phase which is due to start in 2018.

The GFOI Office would like to acknowledge and thank the US SilvaCarbon Programme, ICIMOD and the Government of Nepal for jointly organizing and hosting the summit.

 For more information, please contact the GFOI Office on [email protected]