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Read more about the International Workshop on the Economic & Social Costs of Desertification
Spain hosts international symposium on desertification and migrations
25 October, 2006
The 2nd International Symposium on Desertification and Migrations held in Almería, Spain, from 25-27 October 2006, was the most important event organized by Spain to commemorate the International Year on Deserts and Desertification.
The 1st International Symposium in 1994 set the two-fold objective of reviewing the current state of knowledge on migration processes, and drawing the attention of both the scientific community and the decision-makers to the strategic and global nature of the link between environmental degradation, desertification and demographic displacements.
Twelve years on, the Spanish Government and the Andalusian Authorities, with the support of the University of Almería and the UNCCD Secretariat, renewed the opportunity for international experts and stakeholders to debate this highly pertinent issue in interactive sessions addressing the environmental problems generated by migration dynamics; the interaction between desertification and migrations and the political responses to these problems.
Youssef Brahimi, the Global Mechanism’s Senior Advisor for South-to-South Cooperation, as a guest speaker in the session, Political responses: Land Management and Development Cooperation” presented a paper entitled “South-to-South Cooperation and Migrations in the Sahelo-Saharan Region”, drawing on the experiences of the GM’s South-to-South cooperation programme, SolArid, which has identified the issue of migration as a critical factor in the context of regional efforts to combat desertification and poverty.
The Global Mechanism embraces the conviction that migration management must fall within the scope of partnerships to combat poverty and promote sustainable development and co-development and SolArid stresses the importance of dialogue and collaboration between institutions at national, sub-regional, regional and international level.
As a conclusion to this highly successful meeting and in recognition of the importance Spain places on combating desertification, two concrete proposals have emerged:
- to build a partnership between the GM and the Spanish scientific community in Almería and other Spanish universities, in particular to address the issue of the links between desertification and migration; and
- to invite the city of Almería and other interested municipalities to join the GM in launching a decentralised cooperation pilot programme with a network of rural communities in arid zones of North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Moreover, in order to inform a broader audience of the conclusions of the Almería Symposium the GM has invited the organizers to present the outcomes at next week’s international workshop on the Economic and Social Costs of Desertification (Rome, 4-5 December 2006).
Download the GM's Symposium Paper ( PDF French, 736 kb)
For more information, please contact: Y.Brahimi (at) ifad.org
For more information, please contact: Y.Brahimi (at) ifad.org
Related Links
Visit the Symposium website