Pakistan has launched a process to update and align its National Action Programme (NAP), the country’s strategic document for the fight against Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought (DLDD).
At a national workshop held in Islamabad on 26 April, first steps were taken to review the country’s NAP and identify institutional, financial and capacity gaps with regard to the effectiveness of its implementation. The main objective of the workshop was to validate these gaps and launch the NAP alignment process. Key provincial and national stakeholders participated in the workshop. In conjunction with the NAP alignment, Pakistan has also initiated sectoral policy reviews.
Significant changes have taken place since the preparation of the original NAP in 2002 which demand review and action. These include the adoption of the UNCCD Ten Year Strategy, which calls for recognition of the synergies between land degradation and key development challenges, climate change and food security foremost amongst them. Aligning the NAP with the Strategy is of the utmost priority in ensuring an up-to-date plan of action for restoring the productivity of Pakistan’s lands and creating sustainable livelihoods.
In his inaugural address Pakistan’s Federal Secretary of the Environment, Mr Khawaja Mohammed Naeem stressed that the value of a functional NAP is enormous: ‘Sustainable management of land and water resources is critical for Pakistan’s economic development, food security and poverty alleviation.’
However, in order to operationalise the NAP, a clear strategy for mobilizing a variety of financial resources is essential. In this regard, Pakistan has requested the support of the GM in the development of an Integrated Financing Strategy (IFS), which will be part and parcel of the new NAP. The IFS will aim to provide a clear plan for integrating sustainable land management into country driven strategies and development frameworks such as Vision 2030, whilst mobilizing financial resources from public and private sources.
As one of the first countries worldwide to develop an IFS in conjunction with the NAP alignment process, other countries will no doubt be looking to Pakistan as a leading light in the harmonized development of UNCCD tools and processes that contribute towards addressing the problems of DLDD.
For more information:
Ms Camilla Nordheim-Larsen, Programme Coordinator, Asia and Pacific (OiC)
Tel. +39 06 5459 2061
c.nordheim-larsen (at) global-mechanism.org
