USAID END WILDLIFE CRIME FY24 Q1 QUARTERLY REPORT

The Activity aims to counter wildlife trafficking and other wildlife crimes through partnerships with regional organizations, governments, private sector, and civil society. The Activity supports USAID's Development Objective 3 and Regional Development Objective 1, focusing on reducing transnational environmental crime and strengthening regional civil society networks. The Activity has three main objectives: supporting regional civil society organizations, strengthening the rule of law, and cultivating constituencies for collective action. To achieve these objectives, the Activity will implement various interventions, including social and behavior change communication campaigns, training and capacity building programs for law enforcement and judicial professionals, and the establishment of multi-stakeholder regional coalitions. Given the award date of January 1, 2024, the first quarter of the project was abbreviated. The main highlights of the quarter include the submission of reporting subcontractor notifications, geo-code waivers, and a branding and marking plan to USAID. No reports were completed during the quarter, but several upcoming deliverables are scheduled for submission in the second quarter, including a monitoring, evaluation, and learning plan, an outreach and communications plan, and a gender and inclusive development action plan. The implementation status, challenges, and risks of the Activity are currently being assessed. Due to the abbreviated first quarter, there is no implementation progress to report. However, major interventions are planned for the next quarter, including the operational start-up of the project, the onboarding of staff, and the completion of key contractual deliverables. The start-up workshop for the project is scheduled to take place during the week of February 26, 2024, and will bring together the project team, partners, USAID, and other stakeholders to outline the project's overall goal and objectives, discuss technical activities, and outline plans for the first year of implementation. Management and operations activities for the period of October 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023, are not reported. Similarly, there are no consultant activities to report on for the same period. The next quarter's activities will focus on staffing and recruitment, including seeking key personnel approval requests for the Chief of Party, SBCC Lead, Law Enforcement Lead, and Senior Training and Capacity Building Specialist.