Darwin Initiative: 5th Report
Highlights of the year
The Darwin Initiative seeks to help safeguard the world's biodiversity by drawing on British biodiversity strengths to assist those countries that are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources. It helps countries meet their obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
2002 marks the tenth anniversary of the Darwin Initiative. Since its launch at the Rio 'Earth Summit' in 1992, this small grants programme has supported around 250 projects in over 80 countries around the world covering a range of subjects relating to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. A summary table of Darwin outputs from 1992 - 2002 can be found at Annex 2.
There are 147 projects in 72 countries that are currently underway or have been recently completed. The 31 projects funded under Round 9 of the Darwin Initiative got underway in 2001, and a further 26 projects funded under the tenth round of funding will begin this year. These are listed in Annex 1.
The Darwin Advisory Committee continues to advise Ministers on the programme and project funding. The Committee is chaired by Professor David Ingram, who has just been reappointed for a second term.
The Darwin Monitoring Website, at www.nbu.ac.uk/darwin, has been running for over a year, providing summary information on Darwin projects, news items, and details of reporting requirements. It now includes summary information on recent and current Darwin projects, the Darwin Clubroom and, most recently, the Darwin Publications Database.
The fourth Darwin Initiative lecture was held on 14 March 2002 in London. The speaker was Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, General Manager of the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Agency. His subject was "The Individual and the Community in the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity". The text of the lecture is available on the Darwin Initiative website, and can also be found at Annex 4.
Other Darwin events included the second Darwin Training Day for project leaders, held in July 2001 in Sheffield. The aim of the day was to help new and existing project leaders share experience and identify good practice. The annual Darwin Seminar was held in May 2001 in London, and provided Darwin project leaders with a chance to meet and share experience.
Monitoring and evaluation of the Darwin Initiative takes place at both programme and project level. The Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests (ECTF) continues its contract with Defra to assess whether the programme is achieving its objectives, representing value for money and having an impact within each host country. The results of their monitoring and evaluation work form the bulk of this report.
Each Darwin project is required to provide half yearly, annual and final reports to enable a review of progress against objectives and to ensure value for money is being achieved. New reporting guidelines to assist in this review process have been implemented this year, and have significantly improved the quality of reports.
There were 25 Darwin projects completed in the year ended December 2001. Of these, 23 have been reviewed together with 41 annual reports. Desk reviews were conducted by 29 specialists drawn from the five ECTF member organisations and two consultancy groups. This report contains a summary of those projects and their outcomes. Feedback on the annual and final reports goes to project leaders who are then able to respond and/or address evaluators' concerns through project work. Summaries of the outputs from those projects completed in 2001 can be found at Annex 5.
Reports are reviewed against five measures: the enhanced capacity of the recipient country to meet its obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity; the scientific and technical content of the project; the impact of the project on the host country; project legacy; and value for money.
Reviews suggest that recently completed projects generally made a significant contribution in assisting host countries to meet their commitments under the Biodiversity Convention.
Projects were commended for the high quality of their scientific and technical content and for the quality and commitment of UK staff.
In terms of impact, the number and quality of project outputs was generally high and many projects produced additional outputs. Effective longer-term partnerships within the host country, and sometimes internationally, have often been established. However, it was not always clear what the effect of the project outputs and outcomes has been.
Many projects incorporate measures to strengthen their legacy. Capacity building projects in particular scored highly for their potential legacy. Darwin support continues to be crucial for projects unlikely to receive support from elsewhere, such as those focusing on improving the information base or lower-profile taxonomic groups.
All recently completed projects were successful and represented good, and in many cases excellent, value for money. A few were not able to deliver important outputs such as management plans but, in most cases, these are likely to be developed as a consequence of the project.
The Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests has provided comments and recommendations to Defra on the management and operation of projects, and on the Darwin Initiative overall. They cover a range of issues, such as linking the Darwin Initiative more closely with the Convention on Biological Diversity, funding issues, the application process and the development of indicators to measure project impact.
ECTF's recommendations and comments are being incorporated into our current review of the Darwin Initiative, which will culminate in the launch of a new phase (Phase II) of the Darwin Initiative at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August. As part of the UK's contribution to the World Summit, the UK will also showcase the achievements of the Darwin Initiative.
This new phase of the Darwin Initiative aims to build on the successes of the programme. This includes enhanced legacy of Darwin projects, greater linkages with the Biodiversity Convention, raised Darwin Initiative profile, greater access to various sources of funding and a better developed/developing country balance.
Page last modified 10 August, 2002