The French Desertification Scientific Committee (CSFD) and the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Montpellier (IAMM) are organizing a research workshop/seminar on Policies, Programmes and Projects to Fight Desertification, in cooperation with the UNCCD Secretariat and the Global Mechanism.
The event, which will take place on 29 and 30 June 2011 is being supported by the Agence française de développement (AfD), Agence universitaire de la francophonie (AUF), Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Sustainable Development.
The workshop is being organized within the framework of activities that were first initiated by the CSFD back in 2005, concerning an evaluation of the costs and benefits of investments into fighting desertification and promote sustainable land and natural resource management in arid regions.
It will provide an opportunity for a broad variety of different actors who have a stake in fighting desertification to meet and compare the results of their work. The overarching aim of the workshop is to clarify controversial points and improve the evaluation process to make actions more effective.
The GM will present a session on “Integrated Approaches to evaluation” and will participate as a panelist in the closing session on “Evaluation: the research needs”. The event will also be an important occasion to establish linkages with the scientific community and to provide methodological inputs to its work.
During the workshop, it is expected that:
- Theoretical frameworks, the methods and evaluation tools that can respond to the operational needs of people responsible for policies and operations in the fight against desertification will be made more explicit. A presentation on experiences will take place to facilitate this process;
- Interests and limitations of their application will be presented with linkages made to the needs of both development actors and beneficiary populations;
- The social, environmental and institutional dimensions of local contexts , as well their influence on the evaluation exercise will be analyzed;
- The quality of reading grids, considered a strategic dimension for field actors and decision-makers will also be explored.
The workshop intends to contribute at the international level to the preparation of the second big scientific conference of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and to promote French expertise within an international framework. The Terms of Reference of this conference, which will take place in 2012, target the development of an assessment on the knowledge on desertification economics, SLM and on the ecosystem resilience. They include the translation of the scientific results developed into operational policies and strategies for sustainable development.
For more information:
Mr Simone Quatrini, Coordinator, Policy & Investment Analysis
Tel. +39 06 5459 2154
s.quatrini (at) global-mechanism.org
Annie Maillard,
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,
Tél.: + 33 (0)4 67 04 75 29
