Final Review of the Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (GCS REDD+): CIFOR’s Management Response

Efeca conducted the final review between November 2020 and May 2021 and concluded with six key recommendations for future work (a proposal for a fourth phase of the project is in the pipeline), as well as flagging relevant recommendations from the mid-term review conducted in 2018, which we respond to below. [...] A main component of this MELIA system, the ‘Stories of Change’, was developed in the final year of the project and provided extremely useful insights for current and future work (see below). [...] It can be very useful to assess the pathways’ effectiveness and the contribution of the project to final outcomes (indicated by Efeca as ‘fully addressed in 2020/2021’) As mentioned in the previous section, the MELIA plan began to be implemented in 2020 and will be revised for a fourth phase of the project. [...] Instead, the project should select and closely monitor up to four selected policy trajectories in order to enrich the body of knowledge on the process (stories of change) (indicated by Efeca as ‘partially addressed’) This recommendation should be considered fully addressed through the completion of the following four GCS REDD+ ‘Stories of Change’ in Vietnam, Indonesia and Peru: 1) Payments for For. [...] This strategy diverges from the MTR recommendation, but follows the observation in the final review on the value of nested theories of change.