Out on a limb
ITTO’s Fellowship
Program – can we
make it even better?
By Stephanie J
Caswell (formerITTC chair)caswellsj@aol.com

I

nvesting in sustainable forest management means
investing in people, as well as forests. The ITTO
Fellowship Program does that. Indeed it is the only
Fellowship Program focused on building human resources
virtually worldwide in disciplines related to tropical forests
and the tropical timber economy. Looking back, there’s nodoubt the program has come a long way since it waslaunched in 1989 by the Committee on Forest Industry at theinitiative of its Chairman, Dr. Marku Simula, and its
Assistant Director, Dr. Manoel Sobral. But there may still beroom for improvement.

including, inter alia, revised objectives and priority areas(based on the ITTA 1994 and Libreville Action Plan),streamlined application and screening processes, and setting
an upper limit of US$10,000 per fellowship.
The decision also established the Freezailah Fellowship
Fund (in honor of ITTO’s first Executive Director) as a subaccount of the Special Account to receive voluntary
contributions earmarked for the Fellowship Program. TheFreezailah Fellowship Fund (FFF) put the program on a newand enhanced financial footing within the ITTO.

Trends since 2000

The early years

In the last 10 years, the ITTO Fellowship Program
has flourished under the able
management of the Secretariat,
providing a total of US$3.1 million
in fellowships to more than 500
recipients from 40 member
countries to support a wide
range of activities, some ofwhich are highlighted in this
TFU issue. As the Secretariat’s
Fellowship
ImpactAssessment Survey (page 3)
shows, the program has
been highly successful in helping
to build human resources in tropicalforestry and related fields, especially in
producer countries.

My experience with the Fellowship Program began in
1997 when I was Vice-Chair of the Council, whichmeant I also chaired the Fellowship Selection Panel.
At that time, the Council handled the program on alargely ad hoc basis. The selection panel (comprisedof busy Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs) met
over lunch and after hours on the margins of (thethen) biannual Council and Committee sessions, witheach panel member responsible for reviewing andevaluating a tall stack of applications. Had it not been
for the excellent preparations and documentation by theITTO Secretariat we would have been hard pressed tocomplete our task.
Despite the panel’s informality, I was impressed by thebreadth and vigor of the program, which in 1997 supported
59 grants to nationals of 17 member countries for a varietyof activities in the field of tropical forestry. Most were shortterm proposals of less than US$5,000 to attend professional
conferences, publish and disseminate technical documents,
or participate in short-term training courses or internships.
I was struck by the fact that with so little financial
investment, ITTO could make a concrete contribution todeveloping the skills and expertise of aspiring and young
professionals in producer countries.
With my new appreciation of the Fellowship Program’s
reach and impact, the United States made its firstcontribution of US$25,000 in support of the program in1997. Although a modest amount, it was to be the first of
regular annual contributions which in 2010 totaled morethan US$1 million.

Establishing the Freezailah
Fellowship FundIn 1999, after completing my term as ITTC chair, I had theopportunity to chair the expert panel charged withreviewing the Fellowship Program and making
recommendations for improvement. The panel’s report ledto Decision 4(XXVII) by which Council adopted a numberof measures to enhance the functioning of the program,At the same time, a look at the following
trends over the last decade suggests there
may be scope to further improve theeffectiveness, efficiency and attractiveness of the program:•Funding base. Since 1999, the program has enjoyeda sustained voluntary funding base of about
US$400,000 per year from the FFF. However, 95%of the funds have been contributed by Japan (75%)
and the USA (20%). The remaining 5% has comefrom Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, theUnited Kingdom and Sub-account B of the Bali
Partnership Fund. Just as the Council has stressed
the need to broaden its funding base for project andpre-project activities, it may be useful to explore
ways to attract other donors to the Fellowship
Program, which is open to and benefits all ITTOmembers.

Continued on page 23

Out on a limb
Continued from page 24•••

Award distribution. Since 2000, a majority of thefellowship applications and 60% of the awards have
involved nationals of seven ITTO producer
countries: Ghana, Nepal, Cameroon, India,Colombia, Indonesia, Peru and the Philippines.
This suggests there may be a need to raise awarenessof and promote the program in other countries,
with a view to generating fellowship applications
from a wider field of ITTO members.
Program support and Secretariat costs. About 25%of the US$400,000 available in the FFF each year isused to cover program support and Secretariat
costs related to processing the 300-400 applications
received, as well as managing more than 100
ongoing fellowships. In order to maximize thefunds available for fellowships from the FFF, it may
be worthwhile to consider other arrangements forcovering the operational and overhead costs of theprogram.
Short-term versus long-term activities. Over theyears, there has been a steady increase inapplications (sometime half of all received)
requesting support for post-graduate studies, whichare “high price tag” awards compared with mostshort-term activity costs. In view of this trend, it
may be useful to review the relative benefits ofshort- versus long-term fellowship activities, with aview to determining to what extent and at whatlevel the ITTO program should continue to help
finance advanced studies.

Making the program evenbetterWith 10 years of experience to look back on and in
anticipation of entry into force of the ITTA 2006, now seems
a good time to take stock of the Fellowship Program’s
performance and accomplishments since the FFF wasestablished and consider whether and how to address theabove issues, as well as others that might emerge through astock-taking process. To this end, I suggest Council convene
a second expert panel as soon as feasible charged withreviewing the program and identifying ways to make it
more efficient and effective, taking into account the relevant
provisions of the ITTA 2006 and the results of the Fellowship
Impact Assessment Survey. Going “out on a limb”, I offer thefollowing ideas in this regard:•portion of award financing, across all ITTO members
while maximizing the funds available for fellowships
from voluntary contributions to the FFF, which would
remain the main source of fellowship funds.
•In developing Thematic Program Documents for thenew Thematic Programs provided for under the ITTA,
2006, include a small line item to support fellowship
activities integral to each Thematic Program.

•Each year, award 1-2 fellowships for internships (perhapsof 6-12 months duration) with the ITTO Secretariat in
Yokohama to introduce aspiring professionals to theITTO and its work while enhancing the Secretariat’s
personnel capacity.

•Develop a web-based fellowship “alumni” network or
association linked to the ITTO website to facilitate
professional contacts among alumni, foster information
sharing and the exchange of experiences and lessons
learned, and raise awareness of the program and its
benefits in member countries.

•Request ITTO members to take steps to increase thevisibility of the program in their respective countries(e.g. through contacts in research institutions, secondary
programs, field forestry, etc.) and report to Council onactions taken.

•Make Fellowship Program outreach a formal element of
the responsibilities of ITTO regional officers.

•Review the program’s current objective in light ofArticle 1 of ITTA 2006. Consider establishing a limited
number of “priority areas” based on ITTO’s operational
Thematic Programs and reviewing these priorities eachbiennium.

•Consider the merits of continuing and perhaps
increasing the budget limit for fellowships for postgraduate study.

In my view, the ITTO Fellowship Program is a great
investment in young people and therefore in the future oftropical forests, including the sustainability of forest
management, forest-based livelihoods and the tropicaltimber trade. It’s also a great investment in the future of theOrganization which will likely see many delegates fromamong its former fellows. That said, I believe more can andshould be done to increase the value of the investment forgrantees and individual member countries, as well as
increase the return on the investment to ITTO.

In the new sub-account of the Administrative Accountthat covers “core operational costs” (ITTA 2006, para
17.2.b) include: (1) the full Secretariat costs to manage
the Fellowship Program and (2) an annual allocation(e.g. $100,000) for fellowship awards. This would spreadthe cost of program support, as well as a modest “core”

ITTO Tropical Forest Update 21/123