Role of governance in combating desertification: an event to mark the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD)
This is a record of the proceedings of the conference “The Role of Governance in Combating Desertification”, held in Berlin on September 7, 2006. The conference was held as part of Germany’s contribution to the United Nations International Year of Deserts and Desertification 2006. It brought together European and North American experts from the academic community, politics, government and development agencies to examine some of the root causes of the UNCCD’s faltering progress. They included representatives of the UNCCD Secretariat in Bonn and, crucially, members of the Intergovernmental Inter-sessional Working Group (IIWG), an important body formed in 2005 and tasked with developing a 10-year strategic plan for the Convention. Together, the conference participants highlighted the need for an effective legislative framework and laid out some steps for governments, both donors and recipients, to move from the general pledges of the past to legally-binding targets.