Where We Work
The UNDP Drylands Development Centre specializes in assisting countries world wide to fight poverty and encourage development in the drier regions of the world. With resources mobilized though the UNDP Trust Fund to Combat Desertification and Drought, we have provided financial and technical support to 60 countries to prepare and adopt their action programmes at national and sub-regional levels. Technical and financial assistance has also been provided to innovative resource mobilization approaches such as National Desertification Funds and debt swaps for the NAP processes.
The largest part of our support has gone to countries in Africa; twenty-nine countries have been supported. Nineteen, including Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe have adopted or completed their National Action Plans (Programmes) to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought.
While Africa has been the main focus for UNDP's support to drylands development, attention has been given to other regions. Support has been provided to twenty countries in Asia; ten of these have now completed or adopted their NAPs. In the Arab States, support is being provided to Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, and the Palestinian Territories. In the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), technical and financial support was provided to strengthen the NAP processes in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and to initiate the NAP process in Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. National Action Plans/Programmes have been adopted in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
We have supported fifteen countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with technical and financial assistance for NAP processes. In LAC, special focus has been given to poverty eradication, harmonization with overall national development strategies, involvement of drylands populations, and gender mainstreaming.
At sub-regional level, we have supported and collaborated with a range of African sub-regional organizations including CILSS/ECOWAS, IGAD, SADC and UMA on the elaboration of Sub-regional Action Programmes (SRAP). UNDP resources have helped facilitate the development of innovative funding mechanisms such as facilitation funds for Regional Action Programmes (with CILSS). In IGAD and SADC, we have helped establish Multidisciplinary Committees on Science and Technology (MCST) and in CILSS/ECOWAS thematic groups have been set up to help elaborate priority programmes and projects. Financial and technical support has also been provided to two SRAP processes in the Chaco and Puna regions through an ecosystem approach. Special attention has been given to resource mobilization including the establishment of a trust fund for the Chaco SRAP. UNDP has also provided support to the Western Asia SRAP process.
To view a table detailing the countries supported by UNDP in the implementation of the UNCCD, please click here
For more information on the regions that we cover, click on any of the links below:
