New GEF Council programme for sustainable land management in Central Asia
28 August, 2006
The Governing Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), at its Special Session on 28 August 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa, approves USD 20 million in grants for the first phase of the Central Asian Countries Initiative on Land Management (CACILM).
In addition to GEF’s contribution, the launching phase has identified approximately USD135 million - USD 20 million from the countries and USd 111 million from their development partners.The total value of the program over a 10-year period from 2006 – 2016 is approximately USD 1.3 billion.
The process leading to the development of CACILM began in 2001 when the Global Mechanism, at the request from the Central Asian Countries (CACs) of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, spearheaded the formulation of a donor platform for financing activities to combat land degradation in Central Asia. This led to the establishment of the Strategic Partnership Agreement for UNCCD Implementation in Central Asian Countries (SPA) comprising the following institutions: the Global Mechanism (GM), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and CCD Project of the German Technical Cooperation (CCD Project of GTZ).
Since 2003 the SPA has been expanded to include the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank.
The main objective of the SPA is to work towards improving collaboration between the Central Asian Countries (CACs) and external partners for enhancing the effective use of resources and for mobilising significant financing for implementation of the UNCCD.
In 2004, the GM undertook detailed consultations with the CACs and SPA members for formulating a resource mobilization strategy that would meet both immediate and the long-term financing needs to reverse the trends of land degradation.
As an outcome of these consultations the SPA members requested the ADB to spearhead the development of such a strategy. The ADB undertook an extensive consultation process with the countries, SPA members and other external partners including the GEF, which ultimately led to the formulation of CACILM. The consultations enabled the CACs to broaden national stakeholder participation and to identify a hierarchy of priority actions. This consultation phase was financed by GEF, ADB and the GM, and supported with intellectual and other inputs from all the other external partners.
CACILM provides an umbrella framework for country-driven actions promoting sustainable land management (SLM). SLM is an approach that promotes the management of land through protection of ecological services such as soil fertility, hydrological cycles, vegetative cover and biological diversity, while pursuing social and economic goals.
It also establishes a multi-country and multi-donor partnership for implementing priorities identified in National Programmatic Frameworks (NPFs) supported by national investment frameworks over a 10-year period.
Actions under CACILM will support a sequenced set of high priority interventions to:
- strengthen policy, legislative and institutional frameworks thereby creating conditions conducive to SLM;
- build the capacity of the key institutions responsible for planning and implementing land management interventions; and
- improving land management systems through on-the-ground project investments.
Related Documents
The Central Asian Experience: A Partnership Approach for Financing UNCCD ImplementationRelated Links
Read more about the initiative on ADB's website