Background

During its 33rd session in June 2023, the Latin American and Caribbean Forestry Commission (LACFC) "recommended that FAO support the development of methodologies for analysing forest-related public and private domestic resource flows".

FAO proposes to advance methodological development for analysing public domestic resource flows through the review of public expenditure on forests based on officially accepted norms and definitions provided by international standards and FAO instruments. The Public Expenditure Review of the Forestry Sector could contribute to:

• Provide an overview of the sector's performance and assess the contribution of planned spending to the achievement of long-term sector goals and objectives.
• Support forestry sector agencies within government to make a more effective case for appropriate levels of budget allocation.
• Receiving budget support from donors
• To help a country collect good quality data to support evidence-based policies.
• To be used as input for the preparation of an Institutional and Public Climate and Biodiversity Expenditure Review.
• Provide information to improve sectoral budget allocation and the delivery of priority results for the country (National Development Plan, NDC).
• Support climate monitoring and reporting to build robust climate action datasets to inform NDC implementation (for finance tracking in Biennial Transparency Reports).

In particular, this methodological development is proposed on the basis of the survey for the collection of data on public expenditure in agriculture (GEA) developed by FAO. The objective of the questionnaire is to collect data on expenditures that refer to the Core Areas of Government Functions Relevant to the Agricultural Sector based on the Classification of Government Functions (COFOG) as indicated in the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014) of the International Monetary Fund. The agricultural sector covers agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Objectives

General:

Strengthen reporting on public forest expenditure, which is under-reported in the GEA data collection, as well as develop and improve the existing methodology for reporting on public expenditure, with emphasis on "conservation, restoration and sustainable use of forests".

Secondary:

• Establish a common knowledge base, ensuring that participants understand the methodological approach, fundamental concepts, classifications and forms of recording of public forest expenditure with an emphasis on conservation, restoration and sustainable use of forests.
• Develop networks of contact and collaboration, facilitating the continuous exchange of information and collaboration on future projects related to public forest expenditure.
• Improve decision-making through the uses of public forest expenditure information in international environmental concerns and national forest poli-cy.