The Consultant was hired by Tetra Tech to support the USAID-funded People Rules and Organizations Supporting the Protection of Ecosystem Resources (PROSPER) program in Liberia. In partnership with the Forestry Training Institute (FTI) and other forest sector partners, PROSPER has invested in building up Liberia’s forestry education to support the long-term goals of building the capacity of Liberians to manage their forests more sustainably, and with more equitable distribution of benefits from these resources.
Since 2012, the Consultant has provided technical assistance to FTI to build the capacity of its faculty, update the Institute’s course structure, and create a community forestry curriculum. The community forestry curriculum, designed by USAID|PROSPER in partnership with the FTI Faculty, provides FTI faculty with rigorous and up-to-date curricular materials as they train future fieldworkers who will help communities through the verification process to become recognized forest communities and develop and implement management plans, among other activities, in accordance with the Community Rights Law. This contributes to PROSPER’s overall goal by building the capacity of the forest practitioners who will support the growth and dissemination of community forestry as a viable management model in Liberia.
In April 2014, the Consultant wrote and compiled a comprehensive set of curricular materials on community forestry including lectures, learning activities, and readings for Liberia’s national Forestry Training Institute. For faculty and students, the Consultant created an Internet-based course hosted on a digital learning management system (Canvas) that allows for free mobile downloads and surmounts some of the considerable material and financial obstacles that the faculty and students of the Training Institute face in terms of accessing learning materials on community forestry. Another major task undertaken by the consultant was to provide support and training for the FTI faculty in integrating student-centered teaching techniques into their classroom.
OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The specific objectives are as follows:
- Assess the relevance of the contents and the efficacy of the delivery/ implementation of the community forestry curriculum; with a view to annually update the curriculum through the life of USAID|PROSPER to ensure that the final product adequately serves the needs of Liberia’s forestry sector.
- Review, refine and update syllabi and lesson plans to reflect interactive teaching techniques and learner-centered principles, and the incorporation of additional resources made available through the digital archive created for FTI.
- Review and revise the institution’s monitoring and evaluation systems for both faculty and students to support implementation of community forestry curriculum developed by FTI faculty with support from PROSPER.
- Conduct refresher training for FTI Faculty in participatory teaching techniques.
The Scope of Work for the assignment is found in Attachment 1. This Final Report includes a brief account of each tasks listed above as well as key findings and recommendations on how to further support the Forestry Training Institute and other sectoral partners.