Towards a Subregional, South-to-South Partnership and Financing Platform

Africa’s undeniable potential to combat poverty and promote sustainable land management (SLM) needs to be tapped in the context of South-to-South cooperation.

This was the essence of the final recommendations of the international experts’ meeting that addressed the substance and the architecture of the South-to-South Partnership and Financing Platform for the Community of Sahel-Saharan States’ (CEN-SAD) programmes to combat desertification, promote rural development, agriculture and integrated water management.

The platform, which is the linchpin of the cooperation agreement between CENSAD and the Global Mechanism (GM) portrays itself as a forum for cooperation, coordination and harmonization of actions and synergies between the subregional stakeholders that include the African Maghreb Union (AMU), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and CEN-SAD. The platform will also contribute to the exchange of experiences and capacity building within the region, above all as a result of the South-to-South cooperation dynamics that have emerged under the GM’s SolArid programme.

By promoting the flow and exchange of information on bilateral, multilateral and innovative financing opportunities, the platform will increase coordination and synergy between the initiatives of the sub-region’s stakeholders’, thus strengthening their response capacity.

A Steering Committee has been created for the platform, consisting of CENSAD, the regional Economic Communities, the GM and other institutions active in the region. The Steering Committee will draw up an action plan to be submitted to the 4^th meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture, Water and Environment, that will be held in Tripoli, Libya, towards the end of 2009.

For more information:

Mr Youssef Brahimi, Programme Coordinator, North Africa & South-to-South Cooperation
Tel. +39 06 5459 2584
y.brahimi (at) global-mechanism.org