Land tenure and land degradation in eastern Africa: the context of the united nations convention to combat desertification

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) cuts across many sectors and a multi-stakeholder approach for the national action plans process is therefore of great importance. Many countries place this national coordinating body in the ministry of agriculture, which tends to primarily comprehend dryland issues as they relate to agriculture. There is therefore an advantage if the national framework involves as many relevant ministries as possible. In Uganda, several ministries form the national coordinating body and the Ministry of Finance is charged with the overall supervision of the activities of the national steering committee. Even though the UNCCD has been open for signatures for 10 years and in force for 5 years, a low knowledge-level regarding the convention persists among donors, governments and policy-makers, as well as the population in affected areas. In Ethiopia, the field office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized donor forums in order to sensitize donors about the UNCCD and awareness-creation campaigns have been held in affected areas in Kenya. These activities represent good examples of actions, but there is still a great need for a broader knowledge about the UNCCD. The UNCCD recognizes—in its non-binding preamble—that without substantial financial aid from donors, it will be difficult for developing countries to implement commitments under the convention. The lack of knowledge about the convention combined with the lack of resources presents a big problem for the implementation. Donors need to get more actively involved and affected countries have to find new approaches to fund and implement these activities. The national coordination bodies could for example approach the ministry of finance, which can put forward requests for funding in the bilateral discussions with donors. Uganda and Tanzania have adopte d an efficient method, where the funding does not come through a national action plans implementing body, but the national coordinating body identifies and coordinates already existing funded activities. The UNCCD calls for a bottom-up approach where local land users participate in the planning and implementation of appropriate actions. Already existing structures among local users such as the elder’s council, common interest groups, women’s groups and local NGOs should be involved. In Ethiopia, where farmers and pastoralists are not organized into common interest groups, it is important to mobilize and organize these groups to represent their in terests in the national action planning. Furthermore, it is essential to ensure that women are represented, as this is a field traditionally dominated by men. The decentralization process in Tan zania an d Uganda gave local communities more power and responsibilities to manage their resources. However, renewed efforts need to focus on the education and training of the communities to empower them to manage the environment as a sustainable source of livelihoods.

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