UN-backed fund adopts plan for more financial support to fight desertification

A United Nations-backed global fund for the environment has approved a targeted assistance plan aimed at making it easier for countries affected by severe land degradation to get direct financial resources to address problems such as desertification and deforestation.

The decision late last week by the governing body of the Global Environmental Fund (GEF) to adopt a method of work focused specifically on sustainable land management bodes well for poor countries trying to finance the implementation of global environmental pacts, including the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

In a statement from Bonn today, Hama Arba Diallo, the Convention's executive-secretary, said: "The focus of the funding specifically targets projects that would help country parties affected by desertification to improve their planning systems and thus directly improve the livelihoods of people living in dryland rural areas most affected by land degradation and where the world's poorest reside."

The GEF was established in October 1991 as a joint programme of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank, and relies on voluntary contributions from countries to help solve global environmental problems. It is the official "financing engine" for the international agreements on biodiversity, climate change and persistent organic pollutants, while supporting efforts to control land degradation and improve international waters.

Under the GEF's new plan, assistance would focus on accelerating country-driven actions that use integrated and cross-sectoral approaches consistent with the work programme priorities of the Convention. The plan will also promote and enhance synergies with other environment treaties including the Convention on Biodiversity and the UN Framework on Climate Change.

Once the plan is approved later this year by the Conference of parties to the Convention, parties affected by desertification may apply directly to the multi-million dollar global fund for assistance in formulating and implementing national, sub-regional and regional action programmes. The UN foresees some of the programmes emanating from the decision to cover capacity-building to help mainstream sustainable land management into national development plans, on-the-ground investments to improve local communities and targeted research aimed at improving the effectiveness of other GEF projects.