African governments and donors Monday launched an ambitious plan to fight desertification, which causes chronic food shortages and threatens to drive millions from their homes in coming decades, reports the World Bank press review Tuesday.
The so-called TerrAfrica partnership aims to attract at least 4 billion US dollar (24,8 milliarder DKR) over 12 years to improve the sharing of ideas about how best to combat land degradation, officials said in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
– Its objectives are to improve the policies and governance that affect the management of land, to augment the analysis of the causes of land degradation and the solutions that actually work on the ground, explained Karen Brooks, the World Banks Africa regional manager.
Brooks said the money for TerrAfrica, described by its creators as the largest anti-desertification alliance ever, would be administered initially by the World Bank and made available thorough a trust fund to be established by donors. After a couple of years, officials expect the partnerships head office would be move to a base somewhere in Africa.
Xinhua notes that the initiative is the largest of its kind to address land degradation and increase sustainable land management throughout the continent and will be managed by leading UN agencies, African countries and bilateral partners.
Speaking during the launch in Nairobi, Kenyas Environment Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said the initiative aims to unlock financial and institutional resources and enable countries with the support of regional institutions and the international community to address land degradation along this integrated approach.
With about 65 percent of Africas population affected by land degradation, and over 3 percent of agricultural GDP lost annually to soil and nutrient loss in Sub-Saharan Africa, TerrAfrica will minimize land degradation in the region, said Musyoka who is also the president of the Conference of the Parties.
– We strongly support and are greatly encouraged by the prospect that TerrAfrica will facilitate the mobilization of partners, including African countries themselves, to a long-term commitment to combat desertification in Africa, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Executive Director Hama Arba Diallo said.
Meanwhile, Kenyan Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai warned that the initiative would not be successful without the involvement of local farmers.
– No matter how many policies we put in place, how much we talk in these international fora, until we can go down to work with those farmers down there in the valley, stop the deforestation and protect these very fragile environments, we can talk but I can assure you there will be another TerrAfrica in another 30 years, she said.
Maathais grassroots Green Belt Movement has campaigned for years to plant trees in Africa, saying plantings slow desertification, preserve forest habitats for wildlife and provide a source of fuel, building materials and food for future generations.
Firmino Mucavele, the chief executive of NEPADs South African secretariat, said in Pretoria that the continent had good agricultural zones, but their potential was not being realized. He said land degradation and low productivity in agriculture were inter-linked.
– NEPADs goal of increasing the rate of agricultural productivity (in Africa) above six percent per annum will only be possible if the current trend in land degradation is halted and reversed into an improvement in yield per hectare, he noted.
Mucavele fyrther explained that TerrAfrica would focus on addressing the “bottlenecks” and barriers to sustainable land management in a systematic way in which the full potential of membership would be utilized. It would also focus on mainstreaming the issue of sustainable land management into development policies.
He said governments had committed themselves to allocating 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture and rural development and the recent commitments from the G8 summit and the recommendations in the Commission for Africa report gave Nepad confidence that they could meet the challenges.
World Bank Environmental, Rural and Social Development Sector Manager Richard Scobey said his organization would manage over 100-million US dollar from the Global Environmental Facility over a period of four years in support of rural development.
– It is a difficult challenge for African countries to contribute 10 percent towards NEPADs activities, their accounting systems are so strong and their total needs are also high. We want to work with them to improve their macro-economic development and economic activities so that they have more resources, said Scobey.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
