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TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 1
Growing Hope
Sustainable development in the
drylands of Africa
Strategy 2017-2022
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 2
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.
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 3
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.
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 4
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)
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 5
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.
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 6
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.
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 7
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.
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 8
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
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 9
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.
We will measure success by:
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)
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 10
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.
We will measure success by:
Reach:
number of research projects delivered
number of presentations at technical forums
increasing restricted donor profiles and volume of restricted funding
generated
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 11
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
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 12
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?
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 13
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
IMP
AC
TS
RE
SU
LT
SN
EE
DV
ISIO
N
Syste
ma
tic
Me
asu
rem
en
t
an
d
Eva
lua
tio
n
In p
art
ne
rsh
ip w
ith
Co
mm
un
itie
s,
Go
ve
rnm
en
ts a
nd
Civ
il S
ocie
ty O
rga
nis
atio
ns
AP
PR
OA
CH
ES
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
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 14
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.
TREE AID Strategy 2017-22 15
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.
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