Engaging at country level: COP.8 side-event
4 September, 2007
The call for action on the ground for the people in UNCCD countries has resounded throughout the first two days of the 8th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD (COP.8), currently being held in Madrid, Spain. Responding to this call, on 4 September, the GM held a side event to provide an informal setting for discussing with countries how the GM will increasingly engage with them at the national level in response to the changing international financial architecture. Attended by more than 120 participants, the event was also an excellent opportunity for Parties to become better acquainted with the GM team.
GM staff presented the GM’s country engagement strategy in a series of core messages:
1. Financing for sustainable land management is increasingly found at the country level
Donors, including multilateral development institutions, regional development banks and bilateral agencies, are shifting towards country-driven identification of development priorities. This means that resource allocation is increasingly taking place at the country level, where international development cooperation and national budgeting processes are brought together to set national priorities for development.
This has major implications for UNCCD financing, both in terms of the financial instruments involved (e.g. direct budget support, co-financing arrangements and sector-wide approaches) and for decision-making on budget allocations. If countries want to increase investments in sustainable land management (SLM), SLM must be an integral part of national development programming.
2. Translating the Paris Declaration into financing for SLM
For the GM, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness is one of the guiding precepts for mobilizing resources for SLM. Its 5 principles – ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results, and mutual accountability - are key to the GM’s country engagement.
For the GM, translating the Paris Declaration into finance for SLM means:
- putting into practice and promoting these 5 principles through activities at the national and international levels;
- promoting effective partnerships with donor agencies, partner countries and other stakeholders in order to further SLM; and
- supporting national governments in their efforts to mobilize resources for SLM and UNCCD implementation.
3. Supporting affected countries through strategic interventions
There are increasing calls for broadening the approach to UNCCD implementation to increase investment flows for addressing land degradation and finance. The UNCCD’s draft 10–year strategy highlights this approach, and potentially opens new windows of opportunity for channeling existing resources towards Convention implementation. In the same vein, the GM’s strategic programmes offer a broader, more cross-sectoral approach to financing UNCCD implementation.
The strategic programmes inform the GM’s country and regional interventions by analyzing sectors and actors that have not traditionally been involved in UNCCD implementation; the aim is to increase investment flows through developing programmes that support an enabling environment by making clearer the benefits of addressing land degradation and promoting SLM for ensuring productivity. The strategic programmes are carefully designed to build in-country capacity for moving beyond official development assistance (ODA) funding, towards sustainability in the long term and capitalizing on international market-based opportunities in the short term.
For instance, the strategic programme on Climate Change and Environmental Services seizes emerging opportunities for addressing land degradation through climate change market-based mechanisms and adaptation. The Market Access and Trade Programme looks at how to generate investments by developing both niche and staple dryland products. The Private Sector Programme assesses the benefits of SLM for securing long-term market supply, while the Gender Programme sees women as agents of change and potential investors, especially when they are heads of households as a result of, either domestic or international migration. The Economics and Financial Instruments Programme and the Policy and Investment Analysis Programme inform country engagement by supplying up-to-date information on development cooperation and policy developments that may influence a sector’s ability to generate investment interest - be it public or private
4. Advocating mainstreaming as a key instrument for UNCCD implementation
Mainstreaming is a process of informed dialogue with government and national stakeholders - including development partners. The aim is to build consensus on the impact of desertification/land degradation on livelihoods and to implement priority actions that will lead to a comprehensive government response to UNCCD implementation at all levels.
Why mainstream?
Given the cross-sectoral nature of the UNCCD, mainstreaming serves to broaden the scope of implementation of the UNCCD as a development convention. Mainstreaming is also a means to facilitate resource mobilization.
What are the entry points for mainstreaming?
In order to generate a comprehensive government response to UNCCD implementation commitments, mainstreaming needs to take place on at least three levels: the policy, the institutional and the programme/project levels.
How does the GM support governments in mainstreaming?
- by undertaking strategic analytical work with the government, in economics, policy, budgetary processes, etc. that inform the mainstreaming process;
- by facilitating policy dialogue to promote a common understanding of the concept of and approaches to mainstreaming;
- by developing instruments (e.g. toolkits and guidelines) and methodologies to support in-country capacity building for mainstreaming; and
- by forging partnerships based on comparative advantages, to support countries mainstreaming UNCCD in development.
5. Supporting domestic approaches to financing by developing integrated financing strategies
To support countries in resource mobilization based on these concepts and approach, the GM has designed a tool - the Integrated Financing Strategy (IFS). The IFS is a guiding framework for locating and developing a mix of financial resources to fund bankable programmes and projects related to combating desertification and promoting SLM. An IFS is based on the National Action Plan (NAP) and takes national development priorities into account.
An IFS is a process, not just another document, and all stakeholders should be fully engaged from the outset. It targets four levels of constraint:
- political − when the UNCCD/SLM is not a priority and hence political backing is weak;
- institutional − when the institutional framework is not coherent enough to tackle such a cross-sectoral issue as SLM;
- organizational − when knowledge of procedures is lacking; and
- technical − when stakeholders’ capacities and know-how are insufficient.
The components of an IFS are:
Analysis of the national context: a strategic situation analysis that explores the environment in which the strategy is set, examines natural and anthropogenic factors, describes existing frameworks and proposes solutions for improving the enabling environment at the policy, legal, institutional and coordination levels. It also assesses the funds that are flowing into the UNCCD/SLM and looks at ways of and means for mainstreaming SLM into country frameworks.
Mobilizing internal sources of financing: an analysis that looks at the country's capacity to raise national financial resources and proposes means for improving the mobilization of internal resources.
Mobilizing external sources of financing: an analysis that covers the international donor community and proposes means for increasing the mobilization of funding from external sources.
Mobilizing innovative sources of financing: an analysis that explores a range of suitable innovative financing mechanisms that could supplement traditional funding sources.
Partnerships: partnership building is central to the resource mobilization strategy because of the cross-sectoral nature of combating desertification and promoting SLM, and the multitude of actors involved.
Action plan strategy: summarizes the main areas of action for implementing the resource mobilization strategy and ties together – in a comprehensive easy-to-read logframe – both the activities recommended for overcoming barriers in the enabling environment and the activities required for facilitating mobilization of the mix of financial resources.
The IFS leads to an optimal path for putting in place an investment programme for UNCCD implementation. The level of cooperation and coordination among the various stakeholders developing programmes and raising finances, as well as the blend of resources that are mobilized, serve as important indicators of a strategy’s success.
How the GM translates the Paris Declaration into financing for SLM
The GM's Strategic Programmes
Download the Publication "The Global Mechanism: Engaging at the Country Level" (PDF, English, 339 Kb)
For more information:
Ms Elisabeth Barsk-Rundquist
Director, Strategic Programmes
Tel. +39 06 5459 2471
Email: e.barsk (at) ifad.org