Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund – Caribbean Hotspot Project

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The project addresses the issue that globally important biodiversity of the Caribbean Islands Hotspot is threatened by over exploitation, habitat loss, and invasive alien species and that CSO capacity will need to be built to help achieve this. To achieve this, it seeks to overcome two key constraints: first that CSOs’ capacity to implement conservation actions is constrained by administrative, financial and technical limitations; and second that CSOs’ ability to deliver conservation impact at scale is hindered by isolation, lack of coordination and weak dissemination of good practice.To this end, the project will have five components, with Components 1-4 reflecting the short-term outcomes in the Theory of Change and Component 5 providing the administrative, management and monitoring and evaluation functions necessary for the effective implementation of the other components. The five components are: a) Component 1: Increased Share of Land and Sea in and around Priority KBAs under Improved Management Component 1 will support a grant mechanism that focuses on building capacity of CSOs to reduce threats by increasing organizational capacity, networks and partnerships to improve collaboration to improve the management of protected areas to globally important biodiversity in seven Caribbean Island countries: Antigua and Barbuda; The Bahamas; Dominican Republic; Haiti; Jamaica; Saint Lucia; and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. At the site scale, grant-making will support conservation actions in and around 32 priority KBAs, covering a combined area of 1,171,033 hectares b) Component 2: Increased Capacity of CSOs in Conservation: This component will further strengthen the capacity of local, national and regional civil society in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity through targeted capacity development activities such as classroom-based trainings in proposal design, project cycle management, gender mainstream, and managing environmental and social risks, hands-on mentoring, development of online training materials, and dedicated knowledge exchanges. c) Component 3: Increased Capacity of Regional Implementation Team(RIT) in Leadership and Coordination of CSO Conservation Actions: This component will strengthen the role and widen the responsibilities of the RIT in the active hotspots vis-a-vis the CEPF Secretariat. d) Component 4: Strengthened CSO Partnerships for Conservation: In the context of the project, this means CSOs working with one another and in close coordination with local and national governments, private landowners, local communities to co-create analyses of and solutions to conservation challenges in non-confrontational ways. This approach is termed collaborative social accountability and will be adopted by the project to facilitate partnerships of CSOs and other stakeholders to design and implement conservation actions in and around priority KBAs.In Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica and Saint Lucia, this component will be led by INTEC, with co-financing support and oversight from the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability. In The Bahamas, Haiti and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, this component will be led by the RIT, learning from the experience of INTEC. e) Component 5: Project Management, including M&E: Components 1-4 offer potential for collaboration between island states in the hotspot and with countries in other hotspots where CEPF is active, particularly ones containing Small Island Developing States. The Project is consistent with the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for FY15-18 for the Dominican Republic, Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for FY15-19 for Haiti, CPS for FY 14-18 for Jamaica and the World Bank Group FY15-19 Partnership Strategy for the OECS countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Dominica).