Workshop on financial resource mobilization for the Central and Eastern Europe region

On 10-12 September 2008, the GM will convene a regional workshop, in conjunction with the UNCCD Secretariat and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, on financial resource mobilization for the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region.

The workshop will be held at the Mendel University of Forestry and Agriculture in Brno, Czech Republic, and is part of the regional initiative on financial resource mobilization for strengthening the implementation of the UNCCD for the Central and Eastern European  countries, launched in 2007. As an emerging donor in the region, the Government of the Czech Republic is leading the initiative, supported by the GM and the UNCCD Secretariat.

The event will follow on from a recent meeting on 3 June 2008, between the GM and the other partners of the initiative, the UNCCD Secretariat and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, held at the UNCCD Secretariat’s headquarters in Bonn, Germany, which advanced discussions on the initiative and made plans for the workshop. The meeting was an excellent example of the GM’s cooperation with the UNCCD Secretariat and with emerging donors.

While CEE countries have their own regional annex (Annex V) under the Convention, they have received less attention to date, compared to other affected country Parties. CEE countries, like many others, need to look more strategically at financing for rehabilitation of degraded land and sustainable land management (SLM); exploring both internal and external sources, possible avenues for partnership building, and the potential of sectors such as trade and market access, in order to increase investment flows into SLM and rehabilitation of degraded lands.

The regional initiative is a response to this. The overarching objective of the initiative is to enable focal points and other constituencies in CEE countries to commence the analysis required for the formulation of integrated financing strategies (IFS) leading to comprehensive investment frameworks as part of the iterative process inherent in the principles of the National Action Programmes (NAPs) and in line with the recently adopted Ten-Year Strategic Plan and Framework of the UNCCD.

This will mean taking a hard look at national policy, legislative and budgetary processes plus some of the subregional and regional ones; innovative sources of finance; and external funding processes and sources (bilateral, regional and multilateral) to find ways to tap existing sources and draw on others that until now have been underutilized.

The GM and the Czech Ministry of Environment have, respectively, produced two synthesis reports, based on data collated from questionnaires completed by the Focal Points of affected CEE country Parties and on information collected through a study on external financing. These reports will be shared with the CEE country partners and will feed into discussions and the outcomes of the workshop.


Ms Camilla Nordheim-Larsen, Financial Strategy Officer

Tel. +39 06 5459 2061

c.nordheim-larsen (at) global-mechanism.org