Sustainable Land Management

Over 40 percent of the world is drylands, where about 2.3 billon people live in nearly 100 countries. It accounts for up to 44% of all the world's cultivated systems. Many people living in drylands depend directly upon a highly variable natural resource base for their livelihoods, and about half of all dryland inhabitants - one billion people - are poor and marginalized. This accounts for close to half of the world's poor.

The Drylands Development Centre (DDC) is a thematic centre of UNDP dedicated to fighting poverty and achieving sustainable development in the drier regions of the world. UNDP-DDC adopts the Integrated Drylands Development Programme (IDDP) to help meet challenges faced by dryland populations in a holistic and strategic manner. The IDDP addresses three interlinked issues of importance to poverty alleviation in the drylands within one integrated programme:

-  Drylands issues, climate change adaptation and mitigation mainstreamed into national policies, planning and development frameworks and contributing to the effective implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD);

-  Vulnerability of drylands communities to environmental, economic and socio-cultural challenges (such as climate risks, drought, land degradation, poor markets, migration) reduced and adaptation/mitigation capacity built; and

-  Drylands communities benefit from improved local governance, management and utilization of natural resources.

The IDDP is currently operational in 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States as well as regional and international levels.