Photo © African Forest Forum (AFF)

REGISTRATION OPEN!

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE ON STRENGTHENING SOCIAL INCLUSION IN  REDD+ IMPLEMENTATION IN AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

In the sustainable development goals, issues of inequality are addressed through promoting inclusive and sustainable societies because social (including gender) inequalities reduce opportunities for enhancing human well-being (Pouw and Gupta, 2017). Social inclusion is ultimately about the full, meaningful effective engagement of the diverse stakeholders and rightsholders, such as Indigenous People, local communities, women and youth, to forge public policies and field actions. Social and gender dimensions of REDD+ aim to ensure that forest-related projects and jurisdictional programmes do not harm the environment or communities, particularly the most vulnerable groups like the poor, minority groups, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the Community of Practice (CoP) is to improve understanding of African REDD+ Stakeholders on social inclusion related aspects and how it could be strengthened in REDD+ implementation. The CoP will provide a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices on social inclusion in REDD+ thus, enabling peer-to-peer learning while contributing to addressing specific capacity needs and priorities of African countries. It will also help to explore opportunities to support countries in deepening their engagement for high integrity Carbon Credits.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

The (CoP) will be held virtually via Howspace, a UN-REDD Academy platform for learning and knowledge sharing from 25th November to 6th December 2024. The two-week activities facilitated by a moderator will be articulated as follows:

• The first week will be dedicated to webinar series during which the community members will be provided daily with a presentation (webinar) by selected experts on a specific topic related to social inclusion principles, measures and practices as per the detailed program. The webinars aim to ensure a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the critical dimension of Social Inclusion in REDD+, stimulate experience sharing among community members, invited guest speakers and experts. Each presentation will be followed by open-live discussions and then continued by the chat session on the platform to allow participants to continue sharing their country and own experiences and learning from other members of the community.
• The second week will be live moderated Chat discussions to exchange and learn from each community members how social inclusion is being addressed in their countries, paying attention to countries’ approaches to promote and implement gender responsive processes, benefit sharing mechanism, good governance in REDD+, along with the challenges and potential opportunities for improvement. Best practices will be captured, consolidated and disseminated as lessons learnt from the CoP.
• The 2 last days of the second will serve to consolidate, validate, and distill the lessons and best practices learned during the CoP as well as action plan to ensure continued interaction and peer to-peer learning within the community beyond the webinar sessions. The moderator will prepare comprehensive summaries of key messages for discussion with stakeholders.

REGISTRATION GUIDE

If you are a first time user to the platform, use the following steps to register:

1. Click on the following registration link: https://reddacademy.in.howspace.com/social-inclusion-in-redd-plus-implementation 
2. Enter your e-mail address, when prompted. The Login link will be sent to your inbox.
3. Click on the link and register for the Community of Practice by filling in the mandatory fields of the registration form.
4. In response to the question, “would you like to join a Community of Practice?” select the third option: Social inclusion in REDD+ implementation in Africa and submit.
5. You will be re-directed to the UN-REDD Academy ‘Welcome page’
6. To participate in the CoP, go to the menu bar and click on > Communities of Practice > African Forest Forum> Social inclusion in REDD+ implementation.
7. A video tutorial for first time users will be available on the main page to help you navigate the platform.

*As an existing member of the platform, simply click on the registration link above.

For more information, download:

CONCEPT NOTE AND PROGRAMME