GM supports the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries in developing a cooperation strategy for UNCCD implementation

The GM is supporting the development of a South-to-south and North-to-south cooperation strategy for the implementation of the Convention in CPLP member countries, with the key objective of improving the livelihoods of rural populations affected by desertification and drought. .

 

Although there are various initiatives underway in the CPLP countries, so far there has been no systematic approach geared towards generating favourable conditions that encourage greater and more effective investment in sustainable land management.

 

Synergies between countries are vital in maximizing the effectiveness of implementation and in preventing the duplication of efforts. This approach becomes all the more important when one considers that Portuguese is not an official UNCCD language and therefore these countries are often at a disadvantage in terms of the information readily available to them.

 

The Strategy therefore focuses on sharing knowledge and lessons learnt, at local, regional and national levels, drawing on experiences of all the countries and the comparative advantage of each country. Its four axes are:

 

The cooperation strategy to combat desertification of the Portuguese-speaking countries has its origins in COP 7 (2005), when the delegations of the CPLP member countries supported a proposal by the Portuguese delegation to build the national capacity of the member countries to implement the UNCCD. In May 2006, the Ministers of the Environment of the eight CPLP member countries established a cooperation platform to face the growing challenges in various sectors, including that of desertification and its impacts. Then in March 2007, during CRIC.5, the countries agreed there to develop a South-to-south and North-to-South cooperation proposal, which culminated in the decision to develop the Strategy, within the framework of the joint cooperation programme between the GM and FAO’s Investment Centre.

 

The strategy was presented on 12 September in Madrid at a side event organized by FAO, during COP 8. Mr Alejandro Kilpatrick, the GM’s Programme Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, said that the GM considers South-to-south cooperation as an excellent focus to make best use of technical and financial resources that support national processes to implement the UNCCD and confirmed the GM’s continued support to reach the next stage: engaging in concrete activities. The executive Secretary of the CPLP, Ambassador Luis Fonseca, called upon the member countries to support the initiative through the CPLP’s Special Fund so as to ensure that the programme can be implemented and its objectives achieved.

The GM in collaboration with Portugal will present details of the CPLP cooperation strategy to the European Union-African Union Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on 8 and 9 December 2007. Further information will be posted here after the event.

 

For further information:

Mr Alejandro Kilpatrick, Programme Coordinator, Latin America and the Caribbean