344
mainstreaming; to carefully plan their participation, enhancing in particular
the inter- and trans-disciplinarity),
– to pay attention to the results from the outset (to define them, also setting
indicators and parameters to monitor and evaluate them; to invest in monitoring and evaluation: see also paragraph 6).
The EM must be applied at the local (community), sub-national, national, regional,
and global levels, otherwise the minimum scale required to significantly impact
the livelihoods of people cannot be reached. At the same time, the optimal level
for a best impact of mainstreaming depends on several factors. For instance,
regional institutions can best handle issues of trans-boundary nature, such as
regional conflict over natural resources and use of shared resources such as river
basins and lakes, whereas nation-specific problems such as regulating irrigation
practices in drylands or defining access to land can be handled at national level.
Information flow among all the levels is critical to ensure congruence and
consistency.
It is worth remembering that even UNDP adapted its global strategies in
supporting UNCCD Global Mechanism, making them more transversal and
adopting institutional and management changes to improve support to drylands
development. In particular, it established a new Drylands Development Centre in
Nairobi. The Centre has developed and will be coordinating a new UNDP integrated drylands development programme that focuses on issues critical to drylands
development and the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification.
On the other hand, experiences from worldwide UNDP projects and from single
countries highlight several common difficulties in applying EM. For example,
National Action Programmes (NAPs) often are not integrated into the Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process; reasons to mainstream environment and
drylands issues are not clear to all actors; mainstreaming is an expensive and a
time demanding process; budgets for mainstreaming are insufficient; a serious gap
exist between planning and implementation; participatory approach matters; communication in the mainstreaming process has a critical role (UNCCD-UNDPUNEP 2007).
Furthermore, policy advocacy and awareness raising have great importance, as
well as raising awareness on desertification and its consequences. There is a clear
need for more investments in scientific research to provide data/information and
scientific evidence to decision makers, in order to ensure mainstreaming is taken up
as an important issue. In this sense, technology plays a relevant role, in particular
GIS for collecting and processing data/information on desertified areas, for planning strategies, and for giving decision makers scientific evidence to the importance
of environment.
M. Zortea and S. Lucatello
mainstreaming; to carefully plan their participation, enhancing in particular
the inter- and trans-disciplinarity),
– to pay attention to the results from the outset (to define them, also setting
indicators and parameters to monitor and evaluate them; to invest in monitoring and evaluation: see also paragraph 6).
The EM must be applied at the local (community), sub-national, national, regional,
and global levels, otherwise the minimum scale required to significantly impact
the livelihoods of people cannot be reached. At the same time, the optimal level
for a best impact of mainstreaming depends on several factors. For instance,
regional institutions can best handle issues of trans-boundary nature, such as
regional conflict over natural resources and use of shared resources such as river
basins and lakes, whereas nation-specific problems such as regulating irrigation
practices in drylands or defining access to land can be handled at national level.
Information flow among all the levels is critical to ensure congruence and
consistency.
It is worth remembering that even UNDP adapted its global strategies in
supporting UNCCD Global Mechanism, making them more transversal and
adopting institutional and management changes to improve support to drylands
development. In particular, it established a new Drylands Development Centre in
Nairobi. The Centre has developed and will be coordinating a new UNDP integrated drylands development programme that focuses on issues critical to drylands
development and the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification.
On the other hand, experiences from worldwide UNDP projects and from single
countries highlight several common difficulties in applying EM. For example,
National Action Programmes (NAPs) often are not integrated into the Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process; reasons to mainstream environment and
drylands issues are not clear to all actors; mainstreaming is an expensive and a
time demanding process; budgets for mainstreaming are insufficient; a serious gap
exist between planning and implementation; participatory approach matters; communication in the mainstreaming process has a critical role (UNCCD-UNDPUNEP 2007).
Furthermore, policy advocacy and awareness raising have great importance, as
well as raising awareness on desertification and its consequences. There is a clear
need for more investments in scientific research to provide data/information and
scientific evidence to decision makers, in order to ensure mainstreaming is taken up
as an important issue. In this sense, technology plays a relevant role, in particular
GIS for collecting and processing data/information on desertified areas, for planning strategies, and for giving decision makers scientific evidence to the importance
of environment.
M. Zortea and S. Lucatello