FAST FACTS. Status of UNCCD Implementation. NAP adopted in 2000 SLM programme launched

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1 FAST FACTS Country: ETHIOPIA Programme: The Afar Integrated Dryland Management Project (AIDMP) under the Integrated Drylands Development Programme Period: January December 2012 Donor: Government of Norway Total Funding: USD1,592, Country Basic Profile Population: 81.2 million (WB 2010) Total land area: 1,120, 000 Sq. Km ( WB, 2001) % of drylands: 60%% (UNSO, 1999) Poverty: 32 % Per capita GNP: ) $394 (WB 2010) GDP (US$ billion): 29.7 (WB 2011) Agriculture (%GDP): 46.3% Life expectancy at birth: 58.1 Adult literacy: 35.92% HDI:0.328 (HDR 2010) Major national policies and programmes Growth and Transformation Planning (GTP) Agricultural growth programme SLM Programme Status of UNCCD Implementation NAP adopted in 2000 SLM programme launched Bilateral and multilateral programmes United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Ethiopia UNDAF Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) Partners supporting programmes at country level: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Spain, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States, GEF, Global Mechanism, UN Agencies and UNDP,and the World Bank Programme synergies and collaboration at national level Climate Change Adaptation Programme, promoting autonomous community adaptation project, pastoralist climate change adaptation joint programme, disaster risk management and African adaption programme have a variety of complementing actions and lessons to share. All the climate change, environment and DRM projects and programmes at the Country Office converges at four key result areas which all have two principal outcomes - climate resilient and green economy. The four key result areas are the medium and long term Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), disaster risk reduction and management, enhancing ecosystem good and services and climate change mitigation. Programme Implementing Partners Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Environment Protection Authority, Pastoral Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau (PARDB) - Afar Regional Office - Afar National Region State (ANRS), Dewe, Mile, Chifra, Ewa,and Awra Weredas, and UNDP country office. 1

2 Brief description of issues/problems addressed by programme: Integrated Drylands Development Programme (IDDP): The IDDP addresses three interlinked issues of importance to poverty alleviation in the drylands: 1. Mainstreaming of dyrlands issues into national policies, planning and development frameworks 2. Reducing vulnerability of communities to environmental, economic and socio-cultural challenges 3. Improving local governance, management and utilization of natural resources The IDDP in Ethiopia addresses the following issues: The problem that the AIDMP aims to address: The majority of Afar s people live a pastoral life-style, within a culture that has evolved to be suitable as a way of survival in arid and sparsely vegetated land. While a dryland pastoral lifestyle has supported Afar people for centuries, changes of conditions in weather patterns, in the economy, in access to livestock markets and in the disruption of peace through conflicts with neighbours over natural resources, have occurred more or less simultaneously. These circumstances have brought severe pressures to bear on Afar livelihoods and community survival. Several years of drought have worsened overall livelihood conditions and diminished Afar peoples drought resilience, season by season. Socioeconomic services and infrastructures are underdeveloped in ANRS and the region has a high level of illiteracy, widespread human and livestock diseases, and, due to chronic conflicts, political instability. Moreover, exclusion from traditional dry season grazing grounds due to the establishment of commercial farms, exclusion from cattle markets due to international conflicts, and water and grazing resource disputes with neighbouring clans and with other ethnic groups have added to the burden of everyday life in Afar. There is a further loss of available pasture land, in some places a severe loss, due to the rapid invasion of Prosopis bush. The above issues coupled with pressure exerted by climate change have been worsening the life of pastoral people. This situation has been clearly identified on the Regional and Worda/District level Climate Change Adaptation Programme prepared. These combined factors have resulted in an overall situation of a decline in livestock production and productivity and an increasing vulnerability of ANRS pastoralist communities, with particularly negative implications for women and children. The AIDMP will maintain a high level of awareness of women s and children issues to which the project could provide support, within communities traditional norms and the project budget means. Brief description of Programme: The Afar Integrated Dryland Management Project (AIDMP) is a scale-up from the Mile Project implemented during in Afar National Region State (ANRS) through funding from Norway. The AIDMP aims to build the environmental management capacity at community/kebele and wereda levels based on the Afar Regional and the 5 pilot Woredas/Districts Climate Change Adaptation Programmes prepared through the participation of Regional, Woreda and Federal level stakeholders. The Adaptation Programme has identified vulnerability of the pastoral communities and their environment, the available adaptive capacity and possible response measures to be taken at different levels; AIDMP PRODOC The purpose of the project is to improve the livelihood and coping mechanisms of pastoral communities of 5 weredas by enhancing their capacity to sustainably manage and use natural resources through the implementation of on the ground adaptation activities that are identified in the 5 Woredas Climate Change Adaptation Programmes. AIDMP PRODOC The AIDMP is expected to: 2

3 1. Contribute to building the regional Climate Resilient Green Economy (CREG) platform comprising of stakeholders from the Federal, Regional, Woreda, Civil Societies working in the Region and UN organizations in ANRS. 2. Assist Afar communities to strengthen their resilience to the challenges of land degradation and to maintain and diversify livelihoods in difficult environmental conditions that are increasingly exacerbated by changes in weather patterns and changes in Afar social fabric. 3. Provide feedback through action learning to improve Regional and Federal government policies, programmes and plans on pastoralist dryland management, and, strengthen resilience-building to the urgent national and global environment pressures of desertification, climate change impacts and biodiversity loss. 4. Building an economy which has a modern and productive agricultural sector with enhanced technology and an industrial sector that plays a leading role in the economy, sustaining economic development and securing social justice and increasing per capita income of the citizens to as to reach the level of those in middle-income countries. The expected outputs of the project are: Output 1: Institutional Support for integrated dryland management Output 2: Strengthen capacity for Sustainable Dryland Management Output 3: Livelihood diversification activities support Output 4: SLM Communication and Information dissemination Key activities: Project Team and Office established; Strengthened capacity in Local and regional level dryland management; Alternative energy source introduced and promoted Natural resource /watershed conservation implemented Degraded range land rehabilitated and improved Small scale irrigation schemes developed and rehabilitated Handicrafts supported Financial institutions / saving and credit associations /CBO established and Seed money provided Micro business (Petty trade for vulnerable (women and youth) groups) improved Life skill training according to specific needs of the Wereda conducted IDLM awareness raised Early Warning System strengthened Knowledge and lessons identified, collated documented and shared Woreda level livestock market centers and networks established and strengthened. Capacity of community health workers (CHW) on Integrated Vector Management (IVM) built in relation to climate change adaptation (CCA) School environmental clubs (SEC) established and supported Project Integrated drylands management knowledge documentation and communication and advocacy Brief summary of programme achievements to date: The AIDMP was redesigned in 2010 while keeping to its original outcomes and outputs. Its implementation was kicked started in June The project redesigning has made an important link with the climate change 3

4 adaptation efforts in the region. To this end, climate change adaptation plans of the five target woredas have been prepared. The project interventions were also re-focused in light of the priorities identified in the adaptation strategies. Institutional arrangements established 1. Project team and office established in Afar Regional Offices. 2. Regional and Wereda project and technical committees established. 3. Woreda coordination committee established. 4. The Afar Regional Bureaus of Environment and Land Administration have assigned its own staff to work on the project implementation. 5. Equipment and office supplies procured for the Regional and Wereda project coordination units 6. Project staff recruited and placed motor bicycles procured, custom cleared and distributed to the 5 Wereda projects. 8. General community meetings organized at 5 project weredas in all 15 selected project kebeles to create awareness about the project's purpose, activities and activities to be implemented. Programme Achievements 1. Community and Woreda level consultations held in all the five project Woredas, key beneficiaries identified and sensitized on project goals, objectives, activities and intended outputs and project endorsed. 2. Capacity of 45 Development Agents built on community mobilization through training. 3. Capacity of 30 community members ( 5 female and 25 male) built on Integrated Vector Management Control (IVMC), and a training manual produced and distributed to the community health workers. 4. Awareness on Integrated Dryland Management ( IDLM) and environment issues raised. Seventeen (17) School environment clubs established to increase community awareness on environment, conservation and natural resources management. 5 Information boards put up in the 5 project Woredas for posting, sharing and disseminating information. 5. Traditional natural resources conservation practices of the Afar community assessed and documented, the information will be applied to develop mechanisms to revitalize traditional natural resources conservation/adaptation practices. 6. Assessments of the early warning system conducted in all 5 project weredas to strengthen and improve the existing early warning system. 7. Learning between communities promoted: experience sharing field visits organized to Amhara region - Werebabo to see and learn from the best practices on soil erosion, water conservation, rangeland management and livelihoods diversification. These field visits were attended by 65 people(7 females and 53 males), community representatives Development Agents and Wereda and Regional experts. 8. Baseline surveys conducted in all 5 project Woredas and 15 Kabeles to collect data and to document the current situation in the project weredas to be used for programme implementation, monitoring and future evaluation, i.e., for comparing changes that the project will bring after implementation. 9. Promotion of renewable and alternative energy sources undertaken, a procurement agreement signed with local suppliers to install solar panels at health institutions found in the project kebeles in all 5 weredas. 10. Capacity for sustainable drylands management strengthened: rehabilitation of degraded areas initiated, 12 kms of stone and soil bunds, 500 water conservation structures constructed in 13 Kebeles, and gallies and river banks stabilized in affected Kabeles, 50 hectors of rangelands in 5 Kebeles cleared of Prosopis juliflora and parthenium invasion and enclosed with local materials to protect these from human and livestock interference so as to enable regeneration of grass species. Access to clean water ensured through procuring and installing 20 hand pumps in the project Kebeles. Revitalization of traditional conservation practice initiated: capacity of 150 community members from the 5 project Woredas built on measures for revitalize shifting grazing practices. Capacity of 50 Development Agents built on natural resources conservation and management through training. A training manual on conservation and management of natural resources produced and distributed. 11. Livelihoods diversification activities supported: A detailed study on possible expansion of irrigation structures on 2 permanent rivers in Awra and Chifra carried out to address rangelands water 4

5 degradation stress and help diversify the communities livelihoods in Dewe, Chifra and Ewa Woredas. This has the capacity for irrigating additional 60 hectares of land and will help community members to be engaged in irrigation crop production to complement livestock rearing activities. 12. Capacity of 275 community members built on savings and credits through training on Micro Financing. 5 savings and credit associations established to serve community needs. Lessons Learnt Integration of Climate Change adaptation and SLM issues has been a good step, which was not part of the initial plan. This will assist Afar communities to strengthen their resilience to the challenges of land degradation and to maintain and diversify livelihoods in difficult environmental conditions that are increasingly exacerbated by changes in weather patterns and changes in Afar social fabric. The project should have been signed directly with the regional government body than with multiple partners, which has added unnecessary layers for approval. Involvement of the government and non government organization professionals as team for planning climate adaptation, has made it cost effective and easy to get buy in. Contacts for further information: National focal point - EPA : Mr. Berhanu Solomon: brhansol@yahoo.com Afar Regional Focal point: Mr. Assefa Biru; asbiru@yahoo.com UNDP Country Office focal point : Mr. Shimelis Fekadu; shimelis.fekadu@undp.org UNDP/DDC Africa IDDP focal point: Ms. Sarah Anyoti; sarah.anyoti@undp.org Website: ddc@undp.org 5