REVISITING AFP:
LEARNING THE GOALS, APPROACH
AND IMPLEMENTATION
By
Agus Setyarso and Nandang Prihadi
August 2004
Slide 1
A partnership is a relationship between individuals or/and organizations in which the parties have close cooperation and share specified rights and responsibilities.
It is not necessarily a legal, contractual relationship, but one anchored in common goals, responsibilities, and values. A partnership is a union of common purposes, where both parties benefit from the synergies of cooperation, and the fruits of success.
Slide 2: AFP AT GLANCE
Asia forest partnership (AFP) promotes sustainable forest management (SFM) in Asia through addressing five urgent issues. Topic areas:
- Control of illegal logging
- Control of forest fires
- Rehabilitation and reforestation of degraded lands
Cross cutting issues:
- Good governance and forest law enforcement
- Developing capacity for effective forest management
The partnership acts as a catalyst for already existing initiatives by
increasing synergies and reducing duplication between programs and ongoing
efforts. At this stage the AFP provides a formal framework for the exchange of
information and experiences. AFP activities combine national, bilateral or
multilateral and regional initiatives.
Slide 3
- The partners meet at least once a year to exchange information, identify further work and consult on ongoing activities. The partnership was initiated in 2002. The duration of its first phase will be 5 years.
- Partnerships are voluntary, multi-stakeholder and 'self organizing' based on mutual respect and shared responsibility of the partners involved.
- Partners to the AFP include government, intergovernmental organizations and members of the civil society. All partners are equally accountable.
Slide 4
At the second AFP meeting in July 2003, alternatives for organisation of the Partnership were considered. Three possible models representing increasing degrees of commitment were presented:
- Low-key information sharing and dialogue
- Active, action-oriented information exchange
- Joint action with commitment of resources, supported by information exchange.
So far, no final decision on the most appropriate mode of operation has been made. Nevertheless, the meeting suggests that the third level above has been adopted by default, at least while funds to support such actions are available.
Slide 5
Taking the aspect of illegal logging, Speechly (2004) noted the following specific concrete actions related to illegal logging were identified:
- Developing of minimum standards of legality, timber, tracking and chain of custody systems, verification systems among AFP partners.
- Creation of a framework for cooperation among customs agencies and other relevant agencies in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Harmonization of existing initiatives to combat illegal logging in the region, including the Asia FLEG, the PAN ASEAN Timber Certification Initiative, ITTO, etc.
- Review of existing bilateral agreements/ announcements on illegal logging.
- Analysis of market access of illegal timber trade and means of verifying legality
Slide 6: PRINCIPLES OF PARTNERSHIP
Slide 7: 展HAT SHOULD BE・IN PARTNERSHIP ?
Trust, knowledge sharing, and collaboration are central elements of effective interorganizational partnership.
- In an interorganizational setting, trust can become a major governance mechanism.
- AFP partnership will apparently take the form of institution-based trust.
Slide 8
Slide 9
Slide 10
LESSONS LEARNED
FROM INDONESIA -UK PARTNERSHIP ON COMBATING ILLEGAL LOGGING
Slide 11: On trust building
- Start with high level statements of commitment
- Accumulation of past bilateral cooperation - ODA, DFID/MFP
- Triggered by Bali Declaration on FLEG
- Series of bilateral communications
Slide 12: On knowledge sharing
- Series of meetings to prepare program and actions plan.
- These were basically formulated collaboratively, considering the available knowledge on the situation, issues, predictions, and strategies shared between two countries.
- There are seven programs identified to be addressed in concrete actions
Slide 13: Issues:
- Institution knowledge was mainly scoped by the responsible units - perspective
- By outlining the partnership into hierarchical approach (program-action-component-activities), teachability and observability dimensions of institutional knowledge is maintained
- paradigm transfer and knowledge sharing are still part of issues to be addressed
- protocol to accommodate reciprocity and openness, not to mention transparency, is deem required
Slide 14: On collaborative actions
The Management of the implementation of the MoU's program was structured as follows:
- MoU Program Steering Committee
- Responsible implementation unit at each party
- Program Facilitator
- DFID-MFP Program to assist in administering activities
- Proposal Appraisal Committee (PAC)
- Task Managers for every activities
Slide 15: Issues:
- internalizing program and actions into on going country initiatives
- on private sector roles
- on facilitating: Partners tend to fragment around differences, Boundary
of time
Slide 16: PROPOSAL FOR AFP
Slide 17: On type of institution
AFP tend to be a "shared-service" institution. It will address common interests, work trough agreed strategies, and operated based on contributions of partners
Slide 18: Necessary condition
Structured preparations have to be conducted before an effective partnership realistically materialized. This preparation has something to do with trust building, mapping of partners' knowledge, and institutional capacity.
Slide 19: Start with information sharing
- Start AFP with an action on information sharing, and put other proposals in the next priority.
- At the first phase, strategic mapping on information sharing can be formulated.
- The first round of information sharing might not be comprehensive and fully successful. It has something to do with improving knowledge, and naturally this will be attained gradually
Slide 20: Managing AFP
- A strong facilitating unit for AFP may be established, consisted of full-time and capable staff. This unit will then be linked up to "responsible units" at each partner's institution
- Steering, monitoring and controlling instruments may be constructed
complementarily to the Facilitating Unit
Slide 21: Legalising partnership
There shall be agreements among partners, no matter in formal or just informal arrangements. Such agreement is necessary to the facilitating unit and parties in getting the required resources to start working
Slide 22: Membership
Membership can be practically free, but some minimum conditions must be met. These are related with statement of commitment, type of contribution that a candidate may offer in such 都hared-service・organization, and type of information that a party may share for the partnership
Slide 23: And, let's share our knowledge!