Amongst the most pressing challenges of REDD+ policymakers and practitioners is the need to understand and evaluate the full cost implications of REDD+ strategies and actions. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is designing its national REDD+ strategy; the process can benefit significantly from information regarding the costs associated with different strategy options and their implementation. Economic analyses help policymakers to develop allocate budgets and assess the effectiveness of REDD+ funding. UNIQUE developed a REDD+ cost assessment tool to collect, analyze and monitor total costs of REDD+ and carried out a comprehensive training program for its use. Finally, the project provided an initial understanding of REDD+ related costs for the DRC Government and a selection of REDD+ projects.

• Develop methodology to assess REDD+ transaction, implementation and opportunity costs.
• Build user-friendly tool for assessing and monitoring the full costs of REDD+.
• Analyze opportunity costs for selected REDD+ pilot projects.
• Capacity building for REDD+ stakeholders on REDD+ cost assessment theory and practice.