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11. COMBATING DESERTIFICATION IN AFRICA
Desertification has its
greatest impact in Africa. Two thirds of the
continent is desert or drylands. There are extensive
agricultural drylands, almost three quarters of which
are already degraded to some degree. The region is
afflicted by frequent and severe droughts. Many African
countries are landlocked, have widespread poverty,
need external assistance, and depend heavily on natural
resources for subsistence. They have difficult socio-economic
conditions, insufficient institutional and legal frameworks,
incomplete infrastructure, and weak scientific, technical,
and educational capacities. These difficult circumstances
explain why African countries have put so much effort
into convincing the international community of the
need for a "Convention to Combat Desertification
in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or
Desertification, Particularly in Africa".
Africa's desertification
is strongly linked to poverty, migration, and food
security. In many African countries, combating
desertification and promoting development are virtually
one and the same due to the social and economic importance
of natural resources and agriculture. When people
live in poverty, they have little choice but to overexploit
the land. When the land eventually becomes uneconomic
to farm, these people are often forced into internal
and cross-border migrations, which in turn can further
strain the environment and cause social and political
tensions and conflicts. (The link with migration was
important to the international community's recognition
of desertification as a truly global problem, like
climate change or biodiversity loss.) Food security
can ultimately be put at risk when people already
living on the edge face severe droughts and other
calamities.
The Regional Implementation
Annex for Africa outlines a strategy for action.
This Annex is the most detailed and thorough of the
regional annexes to the Convention. Its proposals
for National Action Programmes benefited from early
attention when Parties adopted a Resolution on urgent
measures for Africa which entered into force in June
1994, some two and a half years before the Convention
itself.
National Action Programmes
strongly emphasise awareness-raising. Most
African countries have organised national awareness-raising
seminars in order to launch the process of formulation
of their National Action Programmes (NAPs). The seminars
gather together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss
the Convention and its philosophy and how to apply
it to national circumstances. In some countries, local-level
seminars have also been held to bring the message
even closer to the actors in the field.
Implementation of NAPs
can be successful only if consultations are continued.
By early 2002, 23 African countries finalised, validated
and adopted their National Action Programmes. These
countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad,
Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Lesotho, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal,
Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Togo,
Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Another five countries
are planning to finalise their NAPs in the course
of 2002. The preparation of NAPs is a dynamic ongoing
process and the status of each country is subject
to change over time. In order to be successfully implemented,
the NAPs need to be integrated into other national
strategies for sustainable development, such as the
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, and consultative
processes need to be launched, aiming at the setting
up of partnership agreements. The participation of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is particularly
important and their valuable contribution to the process
has been widely recognised.
Subregional Action Programmes
(SRAPs) have also been finalised. The existing
subregional organisations in four subregions of Africa
entrusted with coordinating these programmes are the
Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) for northern Africa, the
Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control
in the Sahel (CILSS) for the west, the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development (IGAD) for the east, and
the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
for the south. While community-based organisations
are very important actors in the process of formulating
NAPs, such specialised intergovernmental organisations
feature as main partners in designing SRAPs. When
possible, these programmes seek synergies with other
regional objectives. For example, a project for connecting
subregional organisations to each other and to their
respective member States via electronic systems will
contribute to the strengthening of the regional communications
network.
A Regional Action Programme
(RAP) is also being developed. A Regional Coordination
Unit (RCU) hosted by the African Development Bank
in Abidjan has been operational since early 2000,
its main purpose is to support the implementation
of the RAP. Further to the recommendations of the
1997 Pan African Conference on the Implementation
of the UNCCD, seven thematic workshops were organised
in 1998-1999 to look into prospects for establishing
Thematic Programme Networks (TPNs) in order to promote
the integrated management of international river,
lake, and hydrogeological basins (TPN 1); agroforestry
and soil conservation (TPN 2); rangelands use and
fodder crops (TPN 3); ecological monitoring, natural
resources mapping, remote sensing, and early warning
systems; new and renewable energy sources and technologies;
sustainable agricultural farming systems; and enabling
environments and capacity building. The first three
networks have already been launched.
African countries are off
to a good start, but the real work still lies ahead.
To succeed, affected countries must ensure that combating
desertification is given top priority. They must actively
promote an enabling environment by adopting appropriate
legal, political, economic, financial, and social
measures. For instance, they may need to change their
rules on land use and ownership, further decentralise
government administration and strengthen political
rights at the local level. Meanwhile, external partners
will have to prove themselves fully committed to the
principles of the Convention by entering into productive
partnerships with affected countries. Greater efforts,
including capacity-building and financial support,
are also needed to enable NGOs and civil society to
remain active throughout the implementation stage.
Relevant parts of the Convention:
Annex I: Regional
Implementation Annex for Africa
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