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East & Southern Africa Programme

The Setting

The East and Southern Africa (ESA) Programme covers 23 affected countries that feel the impacts of land degradation and desertification. Food insecurity has become a structural problem and drought and floods are increasingly severe.

In this context of poverty reduction and sustainable development, the UNCCD is a powerful tool for promoting Sustainable Land Management (SLM), due to the overarching framework it provides for a global partnership to address desertification, thereby enhancing ecosystem services through sustainable natural resources management, increasing agricultural productivity and enhancing food security and the livelihoods of rural populations.

The focus of the ESA programme is on harnessing the potential of the UNCCD to rally commitment and support to increase public awareness and understanding of what desertification is and the cost of inaction at regional, national and local level. Through enhanced awareness and deeper understanding of the issues at stake, it aims to increase investments in SLM.

The Approach

The ESA Programme supports the countries of the region in mobilizing financial and technical resources for the implementation of their action plans to address land degradation, desertification and SLM issues.

Partnership-building is at the core of the Programme. Through partnerships with governments, bilateral and multilateral development agencies, private business, civil society, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Programme aims to promote an integrated, comprehensive and coordinated response to land degradation and desertification. Special initiatives have been designed to complement country and regional programmes.

At country level the focus is on three priority areas through which to create enabling conditions for investment in SLM:

mainstreaming SLM and other National Action Programme (NAP) priorities into national policies, strategies and budgeting processes
enhancing partnerships between governments and their development partners , to establish country-level financing partnerships
supporting investment programming to catalyze resource mobilization in support of local initiatives.

At sub-regional level the Programme focuses on policy dialogue, enhancing coordination of UNCCD implementation and strengthening the capacity of partner institutions so they can:

support country-level processes
exploit the full potential of existing financial mechanisms and identify new sources of funding
facilitate information exchange and knowledge-sharing on best practices in SLM
increase civil society engagement in implementing community-based SLM initiatives.

Special Initiatives

The ESA programme has developed a number of special initiatives including the Pubic-Private Partnerships Initiative (PPP); the Horn of Africa Initiative, and TerrAfrica, through which the country and regional level processes are implemented.

The Public-Private Partnership Initiative (PPP)

This initiative, designed to engage the corporate sector in NAP implementation, is being piloted in Kenya and South Africa. It has resulted, inter alia, in the establishment of a National Desertification Trust Fund (NDTF) in Kenya and an agreement between the Government of South Africa and Shell Solar to jointly fund implementation of renewable energy initiatives under the NAP.

The GM has helped develop a strategy to mobilize private sector resources for NAP implementation and is discussing a partnership with the Department of Environment and Tourism (DEAT) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to consolidate the gains and institutionalize the PPP in support of NAP/SLM initiatives, by developing an action plan and operational modalities to insure the successful implementation and sustainability of the PPP.

The Horn of Africa Initiative

This is a new joint initiative with the IGAD Secretariat which aims to facilitate the mobilization of financial resources for UNCCD implementation by capitalizing on existing, new and emerging opportunities within the Secretariat and in the sub-region.

TerrAfrica

Launched in 2005, TerrAfrica aim to provide a collective response to desertification and land degradation by promoting a multi-dimensional partnership between the governments of Sub-Saharan Africa and their development partners. The GM believes TerrAfrica constitutes a very powerful initiative for rallying support and hence for mobilizing financial and other resources for the implementation of the UNCCD.

The GM has played an instrumental role in TerrAfrica by providing advisory support for the development of the partnership. The GM has also co-organized, co-financed and participated in a number of TerrAfrica meetings.

In addition, the GM designed TerrAfrica's Country Engagement Strategy (CES) and is taking the lead in developing tools, instruments and guidelines for SLM mainstreaming as well as providing analytical and advisory services to countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia, under TerrAfrica.

For more information:

Mr Kwame Awere-Gyekye, Programme Coordinator, East & Southern Africa
Tel. +39 065459 2199
k.awere (at) ifad.org