Capacity building for regional council members, sector offices, and academic institutions and CSOs of Oromya, Gambella and Benshangul-Gumuz National Regional States on UNCCD/NAP in Ethiopia

This paper contains a summary of six proceedings which were presented in a workshop organised in 2008 about “dry lands management” in Ethiopia. The paper notes that dry lands are of great importance for Ethiopian agricultural development and economic growth, yet attentions have not been paid adequately to their contributions.

Findings include:

• challenges of poverty and food insecurity will continue to be greatest in dry lands, considering the degrading natural resource base
• insufficient awareness of the urgent need to sustainably manage natural resources, coupled with unbalanced population growth, have exacerbated the problem
• nonetheless, there are many viable opportunities to develop this type of land in a relatively short period of time.

 Critical recommendations of the paper are: 

• local communities should be provided with information about appropriate technologies to combat dry land degradation and desertification
• local communities should be supported through designing and implementing projects related to the problem of dry lands
• the national focal point of NGOs should be strengthened by mobilising funds to promote their organisational capacities to implement the National Action Program (NAP) 
• similarly, an effective information exchange system to promote NAP awareness should be established
• all stakeholders should work together in developing proactive environmental management tools and empowering local communities
• gender should be mainstreamed in environment conservation policies and strategies.