BIODIVERSITY RESULTS AND INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT GAINS ENHANCED (BRIDGE) FY2015 BIANNUAL REPORT

The project is led by the Forestry and Biodiversity (FAB) Office in the Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) Bureau, and is one of its primary instruments. The project's purpose is to support USAID and partners to better integrate biodiversity for improved conservation and development outcomes. The BRIDGE project is implemented by Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) and three subcontractors: Smithsonian Institution (SI), Conservation International (CI), and Relief International (RI). The project's implementation team is currently comprised of DAI and its subcontractors, with access to a number of niche resource partners. The project's start-up activities have been the main focus during the biannual reporting period, with staff mobilization and office start-up being the primary activities. Staff mobilization has been a key activity during the start-up period, with the Chief of Party/Biodiversity Specialist, Jim Tarrant, and the Constituency Building and Communications Expert, Sylvia Szankay, joining the team in August 2015. The proposed and approved candidates for the Integrated Design Specialist and the Research and Evidence Specialist were no longer available at the time of contract award, and replacements are being actively recruited. DAI is using its own recruitment resources as well as those of its subcontracting partners and other networks to identify potential candidates for the remaining two key personnel positions. The BRIDGE project office has been set up in a location reasonably close to the Ronald Reagan Building, at 1300 I St. NW, Suite 400 E, Washington DC 20005. The office suite has fully furnished individual offices and access to a conference room that comfortably seats 10 or more people. Back office support systems have been set up, including DAI's Technical and Administrative Management Information System (TAMIS), specifically tailored for BRIDGE. A project Operations Manual adapted for the BRIDGE project has also been prepared. The principal activities completed during the start-up (Year 0) period have been orientation of the BRIDGE Team to the FAB Office integration working environment and its "sister" project, the Measuring Impact (MI) Project implemented by the Environmental Incentives (EI) consortium. The BRIDGE Team will initially work with and through a series of FAB integration working groups (IWGs), which are FAB-organized working groups at the sector office level in USAID/W. These groups are composed of staff from the FAB Office as well as other invited sector staff to advance the Biodiversity Policy by looking at integration on a sector-by-sector basis. The sectors that currently have integration working groups include Food Security, Climate Change, Health, Trade, Democracy and Governance, and Economic Growth. Each of the working groups has terms of reference for their activities and they meet approximately once per month to review the state of progress against those terms as well as identify opportunities to support key Mission level activities. The BRIDGE Team will be meeting with each of the working groups at least once to identify candidate 1st Year work planning activities, to structure future working relationships, and to establish channels of communication and discuss potential deliverables. The BRIDGE project has three Sub purposes (SPs): Supporting the Integration of Biodiversity and Key Development Sectors in USAID, Improving the Evidence Base for Biodiversity and Development Integration, and Constituencies for Biodiversity Integration Identified and Engaged. The project's implementation will occur simultaneously across these three SPs. The project's start-up activities have laid the foundation for the implementation of these SPs, and the BRIDGE Team is now poised to move forward with the implementation of the project's activities.