Central African Republic - Natural Resources Governance Project

Overview & Synopsis

Ratings of the Natural Resources Governance Project in CAR for Central African Republic were as follows: outcome was moderately unsatisfactory, Bank performance was moderately unsatisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was modest. Lessons and recommendations include the following: streamline planning processes early to maximize implementation time for community investments by simplifying and standardizing the development of Local Development Plans and Simple Land Use Management Plans and drawing on existing plans where feasible; pair integrated village development with continuous facilitation and capacity building throughout the planning and investment cycles, including practical demonstrations such as field schools and control plots to help Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) adopt improved practices; mitigate low institutional capacity and challenging field conditions by recruiting a limited number of high‑capacity consulting firms to deliver at scale while reducing the contract management burden and leveraging robust procurement, accounting, and monitoring systems; design for flexibility and adaptability in Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) settings by sustaining engagement with beneficiaries and coordination teams and enabling timely adjustments through adaptive management; ensure the Bank provides locally or regionally based implementation support, with staff able to offer hands‑on, in‑country assistance to government counterparts to accelerate problem solving; and revise the partnership model with forest concessionaires by offering grants or financial incentives for sustainability measures that go beyond legal requirements while strengthening the forestry administration’s capacity for regular, transparent, and effective compliance controls on legally required measures, using a phased approach that initially emphasizes supportive controls before introducing sanctions.