SolArid Launched
13 April, 2006
SolArid, the GM’s south-to-south regional cooperation programme is officially launched.
The International Workshop, Decentralisation and Local Development in Arid Zones: Where are the synergies? Where is the solidarity? (Marrakech , Morocco, 13-16 April 2006), was the starting point for implementing the SolArid Programme.
Jointly organized by the Global Mechanism and the Moroccan High Commissariat of Water, Forestry and the Fight against Desertification, the workshop brought together the following countries and organisations: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Tunisia, UNCCD Secretariat, CILSS, UMA, OSS, AREA-ED/RM-LCD, RIOD West Africa, NEPAD, UNDP/DDC, IUCN, GTZ and CARI.
Four days of intense debate and field visits resulted in the adoption of a set of recommendations by the Sahel and Maghreb countries present, as the basis for a joint work programme centred on:
- reinforcing local actors’ resource mobilisation capacity at the local level, within the framework of decentralized government;
- creating a forum in which to exchange experiences; and
- undertaking a set of studies to analyse priority issues in greater depth.
The studies will be conducted by scientists from the Maghreb and the Sahel regions and will explore:
- the relationship between poverty, desertification and migration;
- how natural resources contribute to local economies in arid zones;
- local fiscal resources and how they could be better managed by local communities; and
economic evaluation of goods and services in arid zones (environmental accountancy).
In order to raise awareness of SolArid, its objectives, and the recommendations of the Marrakech Workshop, a side-event will be organised during the 5th Session of the Committee for the Review the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC.5).