The growing menace of desertification poses a distinct threat to the world’s agriculture and eco-systems, the United Nations agriculture agency on 22 October 2014 warned, as it announced a new initiative aimed at curbing the spread of land degradation and building resilience to climate change.
Recent successes show that problems related to desertification and land degradation are not insurmountable. Photo: FAO/Giulio NapolitanoThe program me, named Action Against Desertification and launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with the European Union and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP), will devote some €41million to bolstering sustainable land management across the world’s most vulnerable areas in an effort to fight hunger and poverty.*
Very Serious Challenges”
“Desertification and land degradation are very serious challenges. They lead to hunger and poverty, themselves at the root of many conflicts,” FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, said in a press release marking the programme’s launch.
“But recent successes show that these problems are not insurmountable. We can boost food security, improve livelihoods and help people adapt to climate change.”
The FAO reports that more than 70 per cent of people living in drylands and other fragile ecosystems across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific derive their livelihoods from natural resources. At the same time, an uptick in population growth and climate change has placed increasing pressure on these ecosystems, intensifying degradation and desertification and putting millions of lives at risk.
The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative
In an effort to thwart the costly effects of desertification in Africa, the Action Against Desertification will build on an already existing “flagship programme” – the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative – which supports local communities, Government and civil society in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gambia, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal with the sustainable management and restoration of their dryland forests and rangelands.
Two-thirds of the African continent is classified as desert or drylands and climate change has led to prolonged periods of drought; over-intensive farming and over-grazing have caused land degradation; and deforestation has turned once fertile land into desert in many areas.
On that note, the FAO-backed programme it will support agro-forestry while also incentivizing the creation of farmer field schools where farmers can learn about the causes of desertification and the best ways to combat and prevent it.
Meanwhile, in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, the new initiative will target the problems of soil loss and degraded natural habitats by helping local communities adopt improved sustainable land and forest management practices. (*Source: UN Release).
Far Greater Effort Needed to Eradicate Extreme Poverty in World’s Poorest Nations – UN Report
While the world’s 48 most vulnerable nations continue to make in-roads into poverty reduction, a far greater effort is needed if these countries are to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020, according to a new report launched at the United Nations on 23 October 2014.**
The Phoenix Island Protected Area (PIPA) is one of three island groups in Kiribati, a Least Developed Country (LDC). Photo: UNESCO/Ron Van Oers
The study conducted by the UN Office for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) noted that since the adoption of the 2011 Istanbul Programme of Action on their on their sustainable development, least developed countries (LDCs) have seen incremental economic and social gains.
This is mainly because of an increase in public spending and stronger investment and activity in mining, construction, manufacturing and service sectors.
The report however cautions that despite the uptick, the LDCs continue to be among the most vulnerable to external shocks, such as economic crises, climate-related events, natural disasters and health-related threats.
The recent outbreak of Ebola, which is concentrated in 3 least developed countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), highlights the importance of comprehensively addressing structural vulnerability, requiring joint efforts by such vulnerable countries and their development partners.
Deepening Inequality Threatens to Exacerbate Existing Poverty
It also underscores that deepening inequality threatens to exacerbate existing poverty with implications for political and social stability in these countries.
The study identifies four main determinants of the reduction of extreme poverty in the LDCs: gender inequality, institutional frameworks, infrastructure development and service delivery, and external factors.
The authors encourage leadership at the national level to implement policies that improve service delivery, address gender inequality and enable the poor to acquire investment assets that can improve their future income. Women and girls are especially in need of better access to economic opportunities through vocational and managerial skills training.
At a Headquarters press briefing today launching the report, Gyan Chandra Acharya, High Representative and head of UN-OHRLLS said the survey noted that since the 2011 Istanbul conference, progress of LDC’s on many of the goals and targets has been “mixed.”
While some countries had seen improvements in human and social development – in particular in education, health and youth development – others remained mired in extreme poverty. During the same period, official development assistance (ODA) from partner countries had “volatile.”
Extreme Vulnerability and High-levels of Poverty
Given extreme vulnerability and high-levels of poverty within these countries, the UN was recommending that their needs remain of particular concern, he said, adding: “There is still a long way for these countries to go, even to catch up with other developing countries, not to mention [developed nations].”
Among its other highlights, the report argues, greater access to land, technology and finance are integral to boost growth in the LDCs and reduce inequality. “The effectiveness of all policies, in their formulation and implementation, critically depends on sound national institutions,” the report notes.
The study further recommends that governments ensure that efforts to increase domestic revenue are designed in ways that curb inequality. In order to increase public resource mobilization, fiscal policies need to promote public investment that is sustainable, it says.
While governments are encouraged to take the lead on national development, the report highlights the importance of development partners in supporting the LDCs. “Actions by LDC development partners on trade, official development assistance (ODA), and other forms of external finance, including foreign direct investment, and technology transfer and acquisition will determine progress in ending poverty to a large degree,” the report says.
It adds that the UN Secretary-General’s proposal for a technology bank and an international investment support centre for the LDCs could play an important role in upgrading productive capacity, and leveraging the growth and poverty eradication effects of technology transfer and foreign direct investment inflows.
The reports concludes by calling for greater attention to be paid to eradicating extreme poverty in the LDCs within the on-going post-2015 development agenda, especially since most of these countries will miss most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). (**Source: UN Release).
