22 management and lay the groundwork for updating the spatial plans for both Nzema East and
Ellembelle districts to incorporate conservation and improved management measures for the Ankobra estuarine and mangrove ecosystem. Existing satellite imagery has limited coverage
and is also affected by cloud cover, thereby reducing its usability. The mapping exercise will therefore wait in anticipation of new imagery from ongoing US Geological Survey mapping
effort. Meanwhile, the experiment with a small UAV by URI’s Environmental Data Center offers some short term help see 2.2.4.3 for key areas.
2.3 ME Plan Implementation Update
Baseline data has been cleaned and ready for analysis. This was completed with support from the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development BIRD at KNUST. A final report is expected to
be completed in quarter 2. T Intended targets for year 2 have been reviewed. This follows a review of partner’s budget and
a removal of double count of beneficiaries probable to receive several interventions of the project. An interim system has been initiated to detect double count of beneficiaries for the
same indicator measurement during quarterly reporting. These changes have been updated in the ME plan and other related documents. This requirement to avoid double counting of
training beneficiaries in any given year is proving to be cumbersome and adding significant time and costs to account for this issue, especially considering this task needs to be
accomplished and coordinated across a number of sub-recipients that implement the bulk of the training activities. Plans are far advanced to also incorporate gender disaggregated
targets. This is aimed at mainstreaming gender into project activities. In Quarter 2, a workshop will be held for partners on data quality issues, components of the
updated ME plan and simple methodologies for analyzing output data, knowledge management among other several topics.
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3. INTEGRATION OF CROSSCUTTING ISSUES AND USAID FORWARD PRIORITIES
3.1 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment
Please see Section 2, IR5 for information on activities directly related to this issue.
3.2 Sustainability Mechanisms
In order to assure sustainability of project activities, emphasis is placed on: •
Involvement of relevant government officials in project planning and implementation to ensure continuity.
• Continued capacity building and development of local stakeholders described throughout
the report will greatly assist project sustainability.
3.3 Environmental Compliance
The project during this quarter submitted the annual EMMR and drafted an Environmental Review report detailing out all the potential adverse impacts and mitigation actions required
to monitor construction activities of the proposed DAA Fisheries Center. During the Executive Directors Partners meeting, the Directors of the various partner organizations were
taken through the Environmental policies and procedures stipulated in the EMMP that relates to activities with negative determination with conditions especially for construction
activities being implemented in Year 2. A number of follow-up visits were made to monitor ongoing construction activities of the
improved smoking technology in some of the project communities to ensure compliance with the SFMP EMMP.
3.4 Global Climate Change
