Seeing the costs of REDD+, new tool clarifies and compares implementation costs
The REDD+ Cost Model is an open-access, Excel-based budgeting and forecasting tool that facilitates the analysis of subnational REDD+ initiatives. It provides a framework for collecting data on implementation costs incurred by the entities involved in REDD+ on the ground, ensuring that budgeting is thorough and prompting users to consider costs across various budget categories and project functions.
The use of a structured and consistent framework for costing serves several purposes in addition to facilitating and automating budget calculations. First, it supports exploration of how to optimally design and maintain project functions over time. Second, it ensures that budgeting is rigorous and facilitates the understanding of multiple and diverse costs. Third, by using a consistent structure and approach, it allows for comparisons of costs across initiatives. Finally, the model provides various means to classify costs, supporting intra-project cost analysis and, ultimately, decision-making on the scaling up of REDD+ initiatives.