As a Task Order under the REPLACE IDIQ, Integra has conducted a mid-term performance evaluation of the Sustainable and Thriving Environments for West Africa Regional Development Program (STEWARD III), being implemented for USAID/West Africa by the US Forest Service International Program in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire.

STEWARD, which is funded through biodiversity, sustainable landscapes, climate adaptation, and Water, Sanitation, and Health budgets, is a transboundary approach intended to address several environmental challenges across an important and undervalued landscape, the Upper Guinea tropical forest ecosystem.

Integra’s team was led by Dr. Martin Nganje, a forest policy expert based in Douala Cameroon, and included Richard Sambolah, a Liberian community forestry expert, and Dr. Aiah Lebbie, who chairs the Department of Biological Sciences at Njala University in Sierra Leone.

Through this evaluation, USAID will identify mid-course program changes needed to ensure sustainability of the project. The evaluation will also help stakeholders to better understand the initial results and contributions of the project and to help refocus and strengthen its implementation.

This two-month project included activities in Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Guinea, as well as briefings with the USAID West Africa Mission in Accra Ghana.  The final report, once approved, will be available through the Development Experience Clearinghouse.