UNCDD - United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is looking for an International Consultant to support the development of the UNCCD Greater Sahel Programme
The Global Mechanism is an institution of the UNCCD, mandated to assist countries in the mobilization of financial resources from the public and private sector for activities that prevent, control or reverse desertification, land degradation and drought. As the operational arm of the convention, the Global Mechanism (GM) supports countries to translate the Convention into action.
Dryland ecosystems cover some 43 percent of Africa. They are home to more than half a billion people dependent on the land for their food and livelihoods (largely through farming and pastoralism), harbor some of the continent’s most celebrated wildlife and plant species and produce much of the continent’s food. Africa’s drylands are facing considerable challenges due to climate change and declining rainfall, water scarcity and rising temperatures in the Sahel 1.5 times faster than the global average. The economic fallout of COVID-19 has seen livestock exports fall by up to 50 percent and imported food prices rise by the same amount which led to destabilized socio-economic situation for communities.
The Greater Sahel region1 is at the cross section of these challenges but is at the same time a land of opportunity. Building on some groundbreaking Sahelian initiatives such as the Great Green Wall, this Greater Sahel programme will embed the achievement of bold regional targets into a narrative of regional re-integration and re-birth. The benefits will be accrued to all countries in the wider Sahel area.
At the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP15), Parties adopted a set of decisions that focus on a diversified portfolio of support that puts people, especially the most vulnerable, first. Notable decisions included accelerating work on improving land tenure systems, better preparing for drought and encouraging gender responsiveness. At the entry into the Decade for Action and Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, parties agreed it is time to move from plans and targets towards implementation of transformative landbased solutions on the ground.
The proposed programme on the Greater Sahel region will underpin UNCCD’s work in the Sahel region encompassing our ongoing commitment to support the Accelerator of the Great Green Wall and our ambition to support to 6 critical pillars of action that are integral to realizing the potential, through sustainable development, of the wider circum-Saharan zone (the Greater Sahel – that will include the Great Green wall countries, the neighboring countries of the Gulf of Guinea in the south and the horn of Africa.
Further Information: https://www.unccd.int/about-us/vacancies/international-consultant-support-development-unccd-greater-sahel-programme-0