The project Strengthening the contribution of non-wood forest products to food security in Central Africa, financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) through the Congo Basin Forest Fund (FFBC) was signed in June 2013 in Libreville for a total budget of 3,369,267 Euros. Five COMIFAC countries were involved in its implementation: Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Chad. With FAO procedures for the signing of the project document by each of the different governments of the beneficiary countries and the recruitment of the Regional Coordinator (CR) /Chief Technical Adviser (CTP), the start of activities could only be effective on 4 February 2014. The national coordinators of the 5 project countries were recruited during the period from February to March 2014. However, the delay between the signing of the project document and the effective start of activities was made up for through a request for an extension of 6 months which was granted by the BAD/FFBC.

In the end, the project was carried out over a period of 3 years with no financial impact. At the technical level, the project did not encounter difficulties due to the experience gained by regional coordination in implementing previous FAO NTFP projects (GCP/RAF/398/GER, GCP/RAF/408/EC and GCP/RAF/408/EC and GCP/RAF/441/GER projects), which were used in accordance with the implementation schedule at both the national and regional levels. In addition, the internal system put in place facilitated compliance with the project implementation schedule at the national level. This system consists of weekly monitoring, close coaching as well as close monitoring of national consultants through regional coordination in collaboration with national coordinations.