Following a series of mock inspections carried out last year in Regions 2,3 and 4, the VPA-SU2 has embarked on a 2-day Inter-agency Workshop in Region 4 involving staff and line managers of FDA, EPA, and MoL. The workshop is geared towards building consensus for joint inspections, identifying, and reporting non-compliances as indicated in the Liberian Code of Forest Harvesting Practices (CFHP), and introducing the revised inspection checklist for the FDA, EPA, and MoL.
The Inter-agency Workshop took place in Zwedru City at Cash Hotel from the 3-4 of August 2021. A total of 16 persons attended the workshop. Three facilitators from the central office of the FDA, EPA, and MoL, three Contract Administrators of Region 4, three regional staff each from the EPA and MoL, the Regional Forester of Region 4, and two facilitators from the VPA-SU2.
The Region 4 Inter-agency Workshop in Zwedru had the following objectives:
- To present the revised CFHP inspection checklists to Regional Staff of the FDA, EPA, and MoL
- To familiarize field staff with the use of the Non-compliance Registry (NCR)
- To train field staff of FDA, EPA, and MoL in the usage of the NCR
- To enhance the standardized reporting system on non-compliance amongst the three institutions
- To categorize non-compliance with a report to mandatory performance requirements enshrined in the CFHP.
At the end of the workshop, the collaborating institutions, FDA, EPA, and MoL agreed on commencing a joint inspection in November of this year. During the fruitful discussions, the institutions made individual commitments on what contribution each institution could make to the joint inspection. The following contributions were made by the different institutions for the joint inspection:
- FDA promised to provide a vehicle for the inspection
- EPA agreed to use their assigned motorbikes for inspection as well as camera and GPS
- No contribution from MoL
The Zwedru inter-agency workshop ended on Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Written by: Zeon Whawhen
Participants of IA Workshop in Zwedru
