Two key events to support the development of Dominican Republic's integrated financial strategy (IFS) were organised by the Ministry of Environment and the Inter-Institutional Technical Group for UNCCD implementation (GTI), with the technical and financial support of the Global Mechanism (GM) between 1 and 3 September 2010. These events can be considered landmarks in the IFS development because they secured the high level involvement of the Dominican Authorities and the authorities' appropriation of the mobilization of financial resources for UNCCD implementation.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources gives high priority to fighting land degradation, desertification and drought, determined to overcome the barriers to implement SLM, one of which is the lack of financial resources. In this context, the Ministry is working closely with the GM to define ways to access national, international and innovative resources through the IFS. The GM's support is part of a broader joint GM-FAO subregional project.
The main focus of the two events in Santo Domingo was to define how development cooperation agencies and civil society organizations (CSOs) could become fully involved in the resource mobilization process. The first - a workshop on engaging civil society organizations (CSOs) in combating desertification (1-2 September) - was designed to increase their awareness of land degradation and the UNCCD tools available to tackle it, with the aim of strengthening the CSO contribution to UNCCD National Action Programme (NAP) implementation, and developing an action plan to coordinate CSO efforts. The second - a consultation with development cooperation agencies on designing the country's IFS (3 September) - discussed the strategies and mechanisms adopted by international development cooperation agencies to mitigate desertification.
The CSO meeting reached a common understanding on how CSOs will address SLM in Dominican Republic, particularly in vulnerable dryland zones and in the Haiti border area. They also agreed to develop an action plan for CSO engagement in the IFS process, which will focus on information sharing & communication, institution building and the development of key projects.
The main outcome of the development cooperation consultation was the agreement to revitalize its agriculture and environment sector working group to support SLM and the IFS initiatives in the country, along with some proposals for increased engagement in the UNCCD process in general. A second meeting with the development cooperation agencies will be held in December to present and validate the IFS and define specific roles for these agencies in its implementation.
Both meetings were very well attended: 30 CSOs from the capital and the affected regions participated in the CSO meeting and 39 participants from bilateral and multilateral development cooperation agencies, Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Economics, Planning & Development, and CSOs, in the development cooperation consultation.
The National Authorities present expressed their satisfaction with the outcomes of the meetings and committed to following-up on the agreements reached at both meetings and to their actively engagement in the next phase.
For more information:
Mr Alan González Figueroa, Regional Advisor for Mesoamerica
a.figueroa (at) global-mechanism.org
Ms Paule Herodote, Civil Society and Innovative Finance Advisor
Tel. +39 06 5459 2760
p.herodote (at) global-mechanism.org
