OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS CIVIL SOCIETY INVOLVEMENT IN TERRAFRICA; Moshe Tsehlo

OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS Background Africa has vast energies and expertise within its civil society and grassroots people, and is endowed with rich resource base. Yet the African continent continues to be marginalised and remains characterised by intractable land degradation problems, poverty, conflict and debt. Land Degradation undermines the structure and functions of the ecological systems that are critical for the survival of human beings. The cost of lost environmental services has not yet been calculated, but it is expected to be high. The rising population continues to be viewed as a development challenge rather than an opportunity. To scale up sustainable land management (SLM) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This is a common goal shared by a wide range of stakeholders. TERRAFRICA’S MISSION To create an enabling environment conducive to the mainstreaming and financing of effective nationally-driven SLM strategies.

OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS CIVIL SOCIETY AND COMMUNITIES ROLE IN TERRAFRICA. OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS Importance of Civil Society and Communities Involvement in TerrAfrica The importance of full participation by local communities in environmental management and tackling land degradation problems has long been recognised. It is now “ common knowledge” that sustainable land management, economic development and the attainment of the millennium development goals cannot be realised without the popular support and full and effective contribution, creativity and popular enthusiasm of the vast majority of the people.

OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS TERRAFRICA AND CIVIL SOCIETY The new paradigm to overcome land degradation and introduce sustainable land management makes specific reference to greater involvement and empowerment of civil society in both planning and implementation of SLM activity Terrafrica recognized the civil society at early stage and brought civil society into the Executive Committee( PELUM /CONGAD) TA sees a role of civil society at the national level as well as regional OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS

TERRAFRICA AND CIVIL SOCIETY OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS However there are barriers to getting effective involvement of civil society on the ground There are 4 main predicaments/issues civil society as a whole is not well engaged in Terrafrica activities as yet TerrAfrica is still unsure as to how to engage civil society in a meaningful way Riod originally seen as a network for SLM has litlle functional capacity PELUM /CONGAD,the two TA executive committee members, legitimately elected in the last COP by the civil society organisations have limited ability to move the civil society agenda

OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS TERRAFRICA AND CIVIL SOCIETY the bottom line is that civil society needs capacity to participate successfully in SLM 1.RIOD was formed in 1997 to operate as mechanism for communication and coordination among NGOs, community groups, associations and rural organisations involved in the fight against desertification. This came as a response to UNCCD recognising the importance of NGOs in facilitating community participation in the negotiation process leading to the convention and the implementation of its work program. 2.TA needs a functional network of civil society organisation (CBOs,Ngos,INgos) that are engaged in SLM activities on the ground OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS

TERRAFRICA AND CIVIL SOCIETY UNDP/GEF has proposed a MSP 1millions$ for capacity support on civil society engagement in SLM/TA 1.This is at concept level within UNDP /GEF 2.It has received a broad encouragement from a variety of stakeholders OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS

TERRAFRICA AND CIVIL SOCIETY There are three main entry points for the civil society 1.We resurrect and restore RIOD 2.We start again seeking a new NGOs/CSO mechanism 3.We build on the many national sub regional sectoral civil society actors who are already engaged in SLM activity on the ground Knowing that they are involved in extension, research, empowerment, tenure, advocacy, technology, forestry, range pastoralism, gender, agriculture, environment capacity building etc… What is the best option? The third option seems to be more inclusive OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS.

The MSP could follow three stages stage 1:problem analysis, proposal writing stage 2:capacity analysis, networking stage 3:capacity building by doing (2 to 3 years)

OUR LAND – OUR WEALTH, OUR FUTURE, IN OUR HANDS Key issues in the MSP would be improving civil society institutional coordination and sustainability strengthening internal and external networks increasing skills among the civil society (in SLM, economic, policy analysis and advocacy, management, planning, monitoring and evaluation|) designing and testing a system to monitor popular participation SLM, its performance and benefits accruing to people due to participation in order to enhance learning we proposed that the above MSP process be incorporated into 2007 work program

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