Terrafrica: Halting Land Degradation

TerrAfrica, a special catalytic effort initiated by the World Bank and its partners, aims at promoting a new paradigm for framing and implementing sustainable land management in Sub-Saharan Africa – one that enables all parties to work collectively, in partnership, and in coordination to prevent and address the agricultural, environmental, and socio-economic effects of land degradation in vulnerable African countries.

“The fact that 188 countries have ratified the UN Convention to Combat Desertification,” said Warren Evans, World Bank Acting Director of Environment, “is recognition of the importance attached by the world community to combating land degradation. But it has been ten years since the signature of the Convention on June 17, 1994, and despite the call for implementation and the general agreement on massive needs, the scale, scope, and impacts of investments has remained limited.”

Over 97 stakeholder representatives participated in the TerrAfrica framing workshop held in the World Bank's European Office in Paris.

The TerrAfrica concept was conceived and incubated over the course of the past year by the World Bank, in association with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat – the Global Mechanism, and in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, including Sub-Saharan African Governments, multilaterals, regional and sub-regional organizations such as NEPAD, bilateral donors, civil society, and scientific experts.

By galvanizing results on the ground and by harmonizing the efforts of various stakeholders under a more inclusive partnership and under more cross-cutting, cross-sector thematic approaches, TerrAfrica endeavors to go beyond the scope of previous initiatives and programs that address land degradation and soil fertility.

TerrAfrica aims to provide a coordinated approach – building on experiences of good practice and areas for lessons learned, as well as the possible benefits of investing in sustainable land management.

In its framing workshop, held last week in the World Bank’s European Office in Paris, the over 97 stakeholder representatives agreed on a mission statement – scaling up and mainstreaming of effective and efficient country-driven sustainable land management approaches.

• The guiding principles of TerrAfrica were determined to be:
• Shared priorities and economies of scale
• Common methodologies and strategies
• Clear objectives and deliverables
• Joint monitoring and evaluation of progress

With a priority on break-out sessions, the framing workshop focused on incorporating the contributions and feedback of all participants.

“This approach would be the basis for catalyzing additional resources, and more innovative, programmatic, and results-oriented investments in Africa,” emphasized Christophe Crepin, Program Manager for the World Bank’s Africa Region, in charge of leading the TerrAfrica approach. “The current approach to meeting the investment needs and complexity of sustainable land management is not reaching expectations, nor is it possible to scale it up.”

TerrAfrica represents a whole greater than the sum of its parts, similar to other efforts such as the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, and the Global Water Partnership – all structures and partnerships that have taken the idea that collaboration and mutual accountability raise the game. TerrAfrica will link other activities and programs already in place, such as the Poverty-Environment Program and the European Union Rural Development Platform.

"The TerrAfrica structure will recognize partners' comparative advantages," said Jaime Webbe of the World Bank's TerrAfrica team, "and will act as a vehicle to ensure broad-based participation in SLM investments and activities, clarifying the linkages between local, national, and regional levels."

TerrAfrica comes at an opportune time – taking advantage of a combination of institutional, national, and international contexts, including: a) the renewed focus on reducing land degradation as a tool for poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability; b) the work of the UN Hunger Task Force; c) the projected increase in lending for agriculture and rural development based on a commitment by donors to reverse the decline in lending over the last 20 years; and d) the Global Environment Facility Council decision of May 2003, approving Operational Program Number 15 on Sustainable Land Management.

Having all of the different sustainable land management perspectives in one room for the first time enabled the workshop to be a truly unique event, leading to a broad exchange of ideas and networking.

Speaking at the workshop, Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, said, “Our parties recognize they must, together, improve the livelihood of sub-Saharan Africans where, according to the Secretary-General’s Report on combating poverty, 48 percent of the population lives on less than $1 per day. TerrAfrica is indeed an opportunity for abandoned and sometimes neglected African marginal lands to receive fresh investments and attention.

”According to Per Ryden, of the UNCCD’s Global Mechanism (GM), “In order to make progress with UNCCD implementation, it has to become part of the national development agenda, mainstreamed into the national development plans of the affected countries. It also needs to become part of the cooperation strategies of the partners in development, multilaterals, as well as bilaterals. The GM welcomes this initiative and sees the World Bank and other partners as catalysts in support of the UNCCD implementation.“

Coming milestones for TerrAfrica include hosting a regional meeting to possibly coincide with the Africa regional Convention Review Implementation Committee (CRIC) meeting, formally launching TerrAfrica at the CRIC in early 2005, and ultimately reporting on implementation at COP-7 in late 2005.

“TerrAfrica can make a difference in peoples’ livelihoods and the environment,” said Steve Gorman, Global Environment Program Coordinator for the World Bank, “and the active and sustained involvement of all stakeholders in this effort would make TerrAfrica an even stronger response to putting a halt to and reversing the effects of land degradation and improving sustainable land management.”