Our work

Work that moved from plan to practice.

Governance studies, funding proposals, traceability designs and monitoring systems, from Cameroon and across Central and West Africa.

Selected projects, completed and in development, across our four practices. Select a practice to view related work.

Featured work

Six projects we can show today

2019–2023

Nature and Climate Finance

GCF pre-feasibility and full feasibility study on a zero-deforestation cocoa approach in Cameroon

A pre-feasibility and full feasibility study of a zero-deforestation cocoa approach in Cameroon.

Team experience prior to M&E

Cameroon · 2019–2023 · Client: Japan Forest Technology Association

The context: Cocoa expansion is a driver of forest loss in Cameroon. The Green Climate Fund finances projects that cut emissions, but only when a proposal shows evidence that the approach works on the ground.
What we did: Wrote the full proposal, grounded in a field assessment, multi-stakeholder consultation and piloting with farmer groups.
The result: A full feasibility study report.

Tropical forest canopy under morning cloud

2019

Forest and Landscape Governance

Enhancement of African national forest governance to respond to the Paris Agreement and related global climate change policies and initiatives in Central and West Africa

Knowledge on climate issues, generated to help forestry actors shape their policies and plans in response to the Paris Agreement.

Team experience prior to M&E

Central and West Africa · 2019 · Client: African Forest Forum

The context: The Paris Agreement asks every country to set out its own climate plans. For many African countries, forests are central to those plans, and the people who manage forests needed the evidence to shape them.
What we did: Generated knowledge on climate issues for forestry actors across Central and West Africa, to help them shape policies and plans.
The result: A report identifying the governance and capacity gaps that limit forest-based NDC contributions in Central and West Africa.

Diagram of the Cameroon cocoa traceability system, from farm to port of exit

2022–2023

Climate Solutions

Pre-feasibility study for the development of a National Cocoa traceability system to ensure transparency, accountability and compliance with the EUDR in Cameroon

A pre-feasibility study for a national traceability system: what the EU Deforestation Regulation requires, what smallholders can realistically deliver, and where the two meet.

Cameroon · November 2022 to May 2023 · Client: IDH

The context: The EU Deforestation Regulation expects cocoa sold into the European market to be deforestation-free and traceable to where it was grown. Most Cameroonian cocoa comes from smallholder farms.
What we did: Assessed, from November 2022 to May 2023, whether a national traceability system is feasible and what it would need to work for smallholders as well as for buyers.
The result: Report and recommendations of a national cocoa traceability system aligned to the EUDR and to smallholder realities.

2023–2025

Forest and Landscape Governance

2023-2025 National Action Plan for Sustainable Cocoa in Cameroon

The action plan that turns the platform's deforestation-free cocoa commitments into responsibilities, milestones and a timeline that members can follow.

Cameroon · 2023–2025 · Client: ONCC (National Cocoa and Coffee Board) · IDH

ONCC–NCCB, the National Cocoa and Coffee Board

The context: Members of the Sustainable Cocoa Platform in Cameroon had committed to deforestation-free cocoa. A commitment only works when everyone knows who does what, and by when.
What we did: Prepared the national action plan for 2023–2025, setting out responsibilities, milestones and a timeline for platform members.
The result: An adopted and published national document demonstrating phase 1 of how the Sustainable Cocoa Platform in Cameroon will implement sustainability commitments in the cocoa sector.

A hand holding fermented cocoa beans spread out to dry

2022–2023

Technical Assistance and MERL

End-of-project impact assessment of the Cocoa Quality and Capacity Programme, phase 2

An end-of-project assessment of what phase 2 of the programme achieved and what it changed for those it served.

Cameroon · 2022–2023 · Client: Ferrero

The context: Phase 2 of the Cocoa Quality and Capacity Programme in Cameroon, funded by the Italian government (FTL-AICS AID 11613), was coming to an end. Funders and partners needed to know what it had changed.
What we did: Carried out the end-of-project impact assessment in 2022–2023, looking at results, lessons and what should carry forward.
The result: An assessment report of how the project positively impacted cocoa quality.

A farmer harvesting cocoa pods, from the Sustainable Cocoa Platform action plan cover

2023

Technical Assistance and MERL

A monitoring and evaluation framework and tools for the Sustainable Cocoa Platform

The framework and tools that let the platform's members track progress against the national action plan.

Cameroon · 2023 · Client: ONCC (National Cocoa and Coffee Board) · IDH

The context: An action plan with many members and many commitments needs a shared way to show who has done what. Without one, progress is a matter of opinion.
What we did: Designed the monitoring and evaluation framework and the tools to go with it, built around the 2023–2025 action plan.
The result: A National Action Plan monitoring dashboard.

Projects under development

Work we are building now

In development

Technical Assistance and MERL

Green Commodity Technical Assistance Facility

Concept development and resource mobilisation

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) now reward deforestation-free commodities, yet many farmers and SMEs lack the technical assistance, independent verification and upfront finance to qualify, and large companies and financial institutions need help to meet the requirements for finance networks. The facility fills this missing middle, alongside the CAFI-funded, IDH-led Private Sector Investment Hub for the Congo Basin.

Country Cameroon

Stage Concept development and resource mobilisation

In development

Technical Assistance and MERL

Bamboo for Forest (B4F) Cameroon

Concept development

Bamboo is abundant in Cameroon, but it is harvested without management, sold untreated and left out of formal markets. The concept looks at how to make bamboo a managed, reliable resource that restores land, eases pressure on natural forests and gives women and young people a livelihood.

Client INBAR

Country Cameroon

Stage Concept development

In development

Forest and Landscape Governance

Integrated Forest-Friendly Enterprise Model for Prunus africana Conservation in Kilum–Ijim (IFFEMPaC)

Concept development and resource mobilisation

Prunus africana, an endangered tree whose bark is traded worldwide for medicine, is under pressure in the Kilum–Ijim forests of North-West Cameroon. Harvesting is poorly controlled and communities earn little from it. The concept explores how to restore the trees and build forest-friendly livelihoods around them.

Client WTG

Country Cameroon

Stage Concept development and resource mobilisation

The team's record is longer than the firm's.

M&E Company Limited was founded in 2022. The people who lead it were already working on cocoa, forests and climate finance before that. Projects from those years carry the label "Team experience prior to M&E" on the project cards, so that you can see what the firm has delivered and what its team has delivered before it.

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