Impact pathways session during KSLCDI Annual Review and Planning meet in Kathmandu. Photo: Jitendra Bajracharya/ICIMOD

The annual ‘Regional Review and Annual Planning Workshop for the year 2016 and 2017’ on Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI) workshop took place 16 to 18 August 2016, in Kathmandu, Nepal and was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in collaboration with the Department of International Development (DFID) – UK Aid and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The three-day event included panel discussions and presentations where country partners and the KSLCDI team summarised progress of activities being implemented, issues and challenges faced during implementation, financial monitoring of the funds being utilised against the activities planned, and  shared cross-cutting learning.

Eklabya Sharma, Director Programme Operations, ICIMOD, described the event as, ‘an opportunity to analyse the recommendations, how we respond, and what corrective measures would be. While planning, it’s crucial to to link national aspects with regional aspects’. Dr Sharma also stressed a focus on capturing stories of both success and failure as lessons learnt in the three-year-old initiative to serve as a guide for other initiatives.

In his opening remark, Rajan Kotru, Regional Programme Manager for Transboundary Landscapes, and Programme Coordinator for KSLCDI described the initiative as a pathfinder that needs to share its learnings through a range of knowledge products.

Partners from all three countries — China, India and Nepal — reviewed progress within context of a corrective action plan to achieve outputs set for 2016. They also estimated resources in alignment with implementation of the initiative specific strategy to convert outputs to impact oriented outcomes.

Reviewing the progress of the initiative, all country partners were unanimous in looking at transboundary elements as an opportunity for broader economic, environment and socio-cultural benefits of people living in the Kailash Sacred Landscape.

The interactive session on impact pathways led by ICIMOD’s Strategic Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit Head  and independent consultant Boru Douthwaite, helped participants relate with an impact pathways approach to outline activities to achieve the initiative’s objective.

Apart from the assessment of country and component activities, review and planning in alignment of physical and financial status, development and dissemination of knowledge products to better augment initiative communication strategy, and exploring scopes for Kailash common branding across partner countries were also discussed.

Representatives from KSLCDI Focal Ministries and Lead Technical Institutions — the Chinese Academy of Sciences the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, the Ministry of Forestry and Soil Conservation (MoFSC), Government of Nepal, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment & Sustainable Development, Department of Forests, MoFSC, Government of Nepal and participated in the workshop. The variety of participants enabled the initiative to identify scopes for collaboration within involved partner institutions and provided a clearer picture of activities and outputs achieved by all partners. It also prioritised a work plan for 2016-17 revised and focused on impact oriented activities.

The level of coordination and ownership towards the transboundary approach of the initiative displayed by the KSLCDI partners throughout the workshop was the major takeaway of the annual workshop to assure success of the initiative.

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