Delegates from the 191 member country parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification will meet in Nairobi from Monday 17 October to Friday 28 October to assess progress made in addressing drought and desertification.
The Conference is taking place in a year characterized by major environmental and humanitarian emergencies in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Drought in Niger has left two and a half million people facing acute food shortages, whilst in southern Europe drought has triggered devastating forest fires with staggering economic costs.
The recurrent pattern of such major disruptive environmental events epitomizes the relevance of, and urgent need to implement the UNCCD, as the only legally binding instrument at the disposal of the international community to effectively address the challenges of desertification and drought.
Encouragingly, at last months World Summit in New York, delegates resolved to “support and strengthen the implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification… and to address the causes of desertification and land degradation, as well as poverty resulting from it.”
– The fight against desertification is fundamentally a fight against poverty, says Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD. Indeed, desertification is potentially the most threatening ecosystem change directly impacting the livelihoods of the poor.
This years Conference seeks to mark a further milestone on the road to achieving sustainable development and reducing rural poverty, as the UNCCD-sponsored National Action Programmes (NAPs) in affected areas move towards implementation.
The concept of a global partnership between rich and poor countries – the eight MDGs – needs to become a reality, said Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. The NAPs are in this regard a major contributing factor in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly with regard to the eradication of poverty.
The high-level segment, to be held in the second week, 24-25 October, will feature an interactive dialogue on the subject of “economic opportunities in the Drylands”. This advocates a twin-track route towards achieving poverty reduction and sustainability in the rural drylands through increased land productivity and provision of alternative livelihoods.
Two open dialogue sessions with the non-governmental community will also be held – on crisis management through local action, and on facilitators and obstacles to UNCCD implementation.
This Seventh Session will focus on Africa, while setting new strategic impulses for implementation of the Convention in the rest of the world at COP 8 in two years time.
The Conference will also mark the launch of the 2006 International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD), which was called by the UN General Assembly in an effort to curb desertification around the globe.
For further information see http://unccd.int
Kilde: www.runiceurope.org
