Art. 11 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) stipulates that “the affected country parties shall liaise as appropriate to develop, in accordance with the relevant Annexes regarding the implementation at regional level, subregional or regional action programmes to fight desertification in order to harmonize, complete and improve the efficiency of national action programmes (NAP)”. In applying these provisions, the sixteen (16) countries in West Africa and Chad (in Central Africa), decided in September 1994 to cooperate in developing and implementing a sub-regional action programme to combat desertification and manage shared resources. That programme is titled “SRAP – West Africa” (SRAP/WA) under the aegis of ECOWAS and CILSS. The countries concerned are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea (Conakry), Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. This document is the second generation of SRAP/WA (SRAP2) and is developed for the adoption of UNCCD’s ten-year strategy (2008-2018). It addresses the two-fold concern of the 17 ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and CILSS (Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel) countries to improve the implementation of the CCD in the sub-region: (i) by maximizing the complementarity and convergence with new institutional frameworks and rural development policies in the sub-region in order to consolidate the common vision for the sustainable management of natural resources undertaken by the previous SRAP, (ii) a better coverage of environmental challenges using the synergy between the three Rio Conventions, (iii) meeting the requirements of the 3/COP 8 decision calling for the alignment of National Action Plans (NAPs), SRAPs and Regional Action Programmes (RAPs) with the strategic and operational objectives of the ten-year strategy of the CCD. Aligned with the ten-year strategy and with the achievements and challenges of the previous SRAP, the SRAP2 has three strategic objectives: 1) Improve living conditions and food security in arid and semi-arid zones of West Africa; 2) Improve the state of transboundary and/or shared ecosystems; 3) Establish efficient partnerships (in transboundary and/or shared resources management among sub-regional, national, local and international partners in order to speed up the implementation of the CCD at national and sub-regional levels. In addition to these strategic objectives there are 4 other operational objectives within the areas of intervention of the Programme: 1) Efficiently integrate DDLD issues in sub-regional and national priorities in West Africa and influence the international community, sub-regional and national stakeholders to address DLDD issues more efficiently; 2) Work at creating in the sub-region a generally conducive environment for finding sustainable and efficient solutions to combat desertification and land degradation and mitigate the effects of drought; 3) Strengthen the scientific basis of CD/NRM in West Africa and establish an efficient system for capacity strengthening and DLDD knowledge management in the sub-region; 4) Support financial and technological resource mobilization for the implementation of CCD in West Africa.
2013-01-01