The project on “Assessing forest-based livelihoods dependence and understanding the impact of DFID’s forest investments on livelihoods” is supported through a $3M grant from UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). Research by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions network to assess and evaluate forest-sector investment impacts will focus on 10 of 12 programs supported by three agencies in the UK investing in sustainable forest based livelihoods outcomes through the International Climate Fund: DFID, DECC, and DEFRA. The research will focus on program implementation in five countries (Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Ghana, and Nepal), with the Multi-Stakeholder Forest Program in Nepal being the first of the ten programs to be assessed.

The goal of this four-year impact evaluation project is to gain a deeper understanding of these environment/development interventions and their outcomes using the best available quantitative and qualitative techniques, extensive fieldwork where possible, aggregation of field data with available household and census datasets as appropriate and feasible, and in-depth consultations in the countries and with program stakeholders. In addition, IFRI will develop a set of robust indicators for livelihood outcomes and governance covariates, supporting methods and data collection instruments, and analytical outputs that could be used more widely by researchers and decision makers interested in forest-livelihood relationships. As part of this latter objective, IFRI will work with interested partners such as CIFOR, ICRAF, IUCN, PROFOR, and scholars interested in the subject to create a community of practice around forests and livelihoods, and organize two global meetings on the subject to improve the understanding of forest-based livelihoods.