What are the benefits and challenges of being a Regional Implementation Team (RIT) for CEPF? We asked the grant managers of our teams. Here, Leilani Duffy, the grant manager for the Regional Implementation Team at Conservation International’s Pacific Islands Program in the Polynesia-Micronesia biodiversity hotspot, shares her perspective.
Q: How does being the Regional Implementation Team benefit your organization and mission?
Duffy: The work of the RIT in facilitating CEPF has benefitted the CI-Pacific Office in two inter-related ways in particular: facilitating the achievement of CI-Pacific’s conservation targets and 2) promoting the development of partnerships with civil society partners. The conservation targets developed as part of the CEPF ecosystem profile process for the Polynesia-Micronesia Hotspot have been adopted as targets by CI Pacific. Thus, achieving CEPF targets also achieves CI Pacific’s conservation targets. Furthermore, the RIT through its network promotes the development of partnerships with international, regional, national organizations and communities, and thus also achieves another CI Pacific objective, namely to develop partnerships and models that demonstrate that Pacific island societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.
Q: What is the most significant challenge that you face as a Regional Implementation Team?
Duffy: The most significant challenge faced by the RIT is providing constructive feedback to the huge volume of applicants submitting letter of inquiry (LOI) concepts. Most applicants who submit expressions of interest are experts in their field of research or work and sometimes they expect that their application will receive approval by the Technical Advisory Group and RIT. However, many applications do not meet the Investment Strategy target areas, and therefore LOIs are rejected and the applicant often raises concerns about why it was not accepted. The RIT therefore takes great care when preparing replies to applicants so that they clearly understand the basis of why their applications were approved or declined. Feedback from applicants indicates that this approach is successful, as applicants frequently reapply with acceptable applications in the next round of funding.
Q: How has CEPF's focus on civil society engagement affected the way that you work?
Duffy: CEPF has a strong focus on civil society engagement: most of the applications are from different types of civil society ranging from NGOs, academia, regional organizations, private companies and community-based organizations. The emphasis on civil society has helped improve the way I work in terms of understanding the different groups within civil society and the way they work with their local partners in the field. The focus on civil society is really important and for me this is one of the RIT priorities, to build synergies with partners (i.e grantees) through capacity-building activities mainly in projects that are supported by CEPF. Furthermore, CEPF’s focus on civil society really helps in improving public relationships with partners and increases community ownership of projects. However, some of the most successful projects in the Polynesia-Micronesia region are a partnership between civil society and a government or intergovernmental partner because civil society partners are often very weak.