Nairobi, 19 November 2015. A training workshop on forest related international agreements will be held in Mombasa, Kenya from 1-4 December 2015 to improve the understanding of African delegates on international agreements and domestication of decisions emanating from global negotiations for integration into national and institutional plans.
Many African governments have signed, ratified or acceded to forest related international agreements in an effort to confront the growing array of environmental challenges facing the sector. However, integrating these decisions into national strategies and policies to achieve forest related development has not been sufficient.
It is for this reason that the training workshop organized by the African Forest Forum (AFF) seeks to build the capacity of key forestry actors on mainstreaming Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). The overall goal is to broaden the awareness of important forest related international processes and MEAs to a larger community at the national level, including research and academia, NGOs and the private sector who are also key stakeholders for their effective engagement in international processes.
The specific objectives are to:
Sensitise and enhance awareness among key forestry actors of the forest related international multilateral processes, and provisions and key decisions that have emanated from them.
Provide a forum for key national actors to thoroughly examine the obligations of the agreements, exchange knowledge and experience of their relevance in the national context, and identify gaps and opportunities (e.g. in the legal, institutional and policy frameworks) for the effective coordination at national level as a means for promoting good forest governance.
To identify the appropriate measures and strategies national institutions (government, academic, research, private sector, civil society) can take to mainstream the provisions of the international agreements into their activities as a contribution to mainstreaming the same in national processes.
At the end of the training, participants are expected to: have good understanding of international multilateral processes, and provisions of the key forest related international agreements and implications for their institutions; have the necessary skills for effective implementation of decisions from processes related to the international agreements and achievement of their benefits; and are able to develop appropriate institutional mechanisms and structures that help adapt, domesticate, monitor and report on progress of implementation of forest related international agreements at national level.
The workshop is an integral component of the AFFs project entitled Strengthening Sustainable Forest Management in Africa It is being organized within the framework of one of its key objectives aimed at strengthening Africas participation in regional and international debates and negotiations, and enhancing implementation of decisions from relevant processes of international and regional forest and related agreements.
For further information on the training workshop contact:
Dr. Doris Mutta
Senior Programme Officer,
African Forest Forum
Email: d.mutta@cgiar.org