IV. UPCOMING CHALLENGES, CONSTRAINTS, AND OPPORTUNITIES
Having reached the half-way point in the SUCCESS Life of Program, it becomes ever more critical to periodically assess where the Program is in terms of adjusting activities, setting the best
targets, and reaching those targets before Program conclusion. In preparation for the annual SUCCESS meeting in early July, CRC conducted a retreat on the regional and global activities in
March. This exercise was designed to assess progress to date, degree we are achieving our intended Life-of-Project Goals, and map out our broad strategy for the next half time frame of the
program. We are also planning a one and a half day retreat in April in order to assess Program direction and make mid-Program adjustments in thinking and programmatic focus so as not only
to realize its targets but to position itself for a potential extension to the existing LWA. Realizing that USAID may put a cap on Global Cooperative Agreements to limit these to an annual funding
ceiling of 750,000, it is important to strategize as well on best approaches to securing leveraged funding.
With the certification program for marine protected area MPA professionals there is an opportunity to speak to the growing statements globally for an increase in the number and the
effectiveness of MPAs. There is also the opportunity to link with at least one and possibly more SUCCESS strategic partners and others. For example, in this current quarter, SIDA provided
leveraged funding to this initiative in the Western Indian Ocean region while the European Union-funded Regional Western Indian Ocean region Coastal Resources Management Project
RECOMAP and The Nature Conservancy both expressed interest in providing potential programmatic and financial support to the effort as well. The challenge is to move from
“statements of support” to real financial support from these other interested parties. This reporting quarter the SUCCESS Program benefited significantly by having several graduate
students from the IGERT Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program participate in Tanzania based activities. These are students who have been hand-selected from the
great number of applicants to this program for their intelligence, analytical skills, and motivation. Hence, there has already been a “screening” of these students and any program that involves them
as did SUCCESS benefits from a low costhigh return source of subject matter expertise. The opportunity to continue the use of IGERT program students in the SUCCESS activities is there
for the seizing and CRC should continue to do so. Discussions at the annual IMCAFS meeting and the Directors meetings between GLOWS,
SUCCESS and their respective USAID CTOs have led to a greater desire for collaboration between the two programs. The first effort on developing a common learning agenda during the
previous year was not very successful. However, with the Basins and Coasts e-newsletter where we produce outreach articles on topics of common interest, we seem to have found a useful way
to collaborate. For field sites, we have not been successful at identifying areas or places where we could work collaboratively within the SUCCESS and GLOWS family of sites. However, our
interactions have led to substantial collaboration in Tanzania on watershed management and freshwater flows to estuaries for the Wami river basin. These activities are funded by the
USAIDTanzania mission as well as through the Washington-based GDA partnership of USAID and Coca-Cola Inc.
50
Kategori