The evolution of forest finance in five African countries: lessons learned from the REDDX initiative in Africa
In an effort to better understand continent-wide patterns of REDD+ finance, this study has built off of the initial five years of the work of Forest Trends’ REDDX initiative through focused stakeholder meetings, distribution of questionnaires, and review of literature and available documents to synthesize the main trends and understand the lessons learned in Africa with respect to REDD+ finance and readiness, as well as the implementation of REDDX. The analysis shows that $543 million, which constitutes 14.7% of global REDDX tracked financing, was committed to these five countries over the period 2009-2014. Of this amount, $284 million (52%) has been disbursed within this period, most of which was disbursed to governments and international institutions. More specifically, REDD+ governments received the largest amount of funding ($259.1 million), followed by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) ($85.9 million), the offices of donor governments in the REDD+ countries ($83.9 million), multilateral development institutions (MDI) ($31.6 million) and international consortia ($20.8 million). MDIs have committed the greatest amount of funding (48% or $262 million), followed by donor governments (38% or $209 million), and other types of funds (7% or $36 M). The largest single donor however remains the Government of Norway, which committed $113.8 million, followed by the World Bank’s Forest Investment Program (FIP) and International Development Assistance (IDA), with $67.7 M and $64 M respectively.