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Table of content

1. THE EXPECTATION
The AFF Strategic Plan will:

• Cover short and medium term periods.
• Engender clear and strong commitment from and to all partners.
• Provide a clear financial approach and principles.
• Reflect clearly the opportunities that Africa’s diversity presents for AFF and African forests.
• Incorporate elements of knowledge management and learning.
• Cover a wide range of areas that influence forests or are impacted by them, such as forest lands experiencing the impacts of climate change.
• Secure support of national authorities and leadership to AFF's programmes, projects and other activities.
• Incorporate research and appropriate approaches to adaptability requirements.
• Identify the key elements of the institutional strengthening process relating to systems and structures that arise out of the Strategic Plan.

2.    THE CONTEXT

2.1 Background issues and events

Between 2003 and 2008 a project on Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Africa was implemented in two phases, and with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The African Forest Research Network (AFORNET) at the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, together with many African institutions and individuals, as well as other international organisations, implemented the first phase of the project (SFM I). This sought to identify positive and negative lessons from forest activities, programmes and projects that had been implemented in Africa since most countries became independent in the last 40+ years. It also sought to enrich its findings through analysing the relevance, to Africa, of lessons from Latin America, Asia and Sweden. In discussing the results of this work, many senior African “forest stakeholders” from national, regional and international bodies who were involved with the process expressed a strong conviction that mechanisms be put in place to sustain the momentum of getting quality science- and experience-based analyses to backstop African leaders in decisions concerning the management of national forest resources and in various global debates. In this context, there was an expressed desire by many participants in the project to strengthen, institutionalise and sustain the independent,

professional and open analytical way of working that was the modus operandi of the project. One of the objectives of the second phase of the project (SFM II) was to establish an African Forest Forum (AFF) that could sustain the momentum of an independent and objective analysis, as well as provide sound advice and advocacy to backstop African leaders in decisions concerning the management of national forest resources and in various global fora.

The following steps highlight the way the AFF was established:

• The Steering Committee (SC) of the SFM II project, at its second meeting on January 25-26, 2007, facilitated the establishment of 16 Founder Members who held their first meeting on January 26, 2007 and formally established the African Forest Forum, as provided for in the Charter.
• Following establishment of AFF, a process of registering the Forum in Kenya, as an independent, not-for-profit international non-governmental organisation was initiated. This followed a consensus reached electronically and through sub-regional workshops, by many stakeholders, on the location for the Forum secretariat, its Charter and Guidelines for its operations. The registration necessitated re-working all the Charter and sections of the Guidelines into a Constitution to meet the Kenyan NGO registration requirements. The AFF is also registered in Tanzania and Niger.
• The second meeting of the Founder Members (July 25, 2007) nominated members to the Governing Council of the Forum.
• The third meeting of Founder Members (October 15, 2007) nominated the Chair and Vice Chair and more members to the Governing Council.
• The Governing Council met for the first time on October 15-16, 2007, and this marked the commencement of the operations of the AFF, as provided for in the Constitution.
• The Governing Council, at this first meeting, appointed the first Executive Secretary of the AFF, and constituted the Executive Committee, which first met on October 16, 2007.
• The second meeting of the Governing Council was held on February 27-28, 2008 and appointed more members to the Governing Council.
  The diagram above highlights the consultations that took place in arriving at consensus on the need for AFF, its structure, modus operandi, location of the Secretariat, among others decisions.