Bonn/Nairobi, 3 March
2011 - An informative video outlining the
PRAIS initiative has been launched. Unique
amongst the Rio Convention, PRAIS utilises
an interactive online portal to collate
information from 194 countries on quantifiable
actions towards the UNCCD's 10 Year Strategy
for poverty reduction and environmental
sustainability.
Desertification, land
degradation and drought affect over one
and a half billion people in more than 110
countries. This is a third of the world
population, 90% of whom are in low income
areas. The pathways out of poverty often
depend on the resources that are lost: land,
water and forests.
Nearly a quarter of
the Earth became degraded between 1981 and
2003. Every ten years an area the size of
France, Germany and Switzerland is lost.
Already by 1993, UNEP estimated the annual
financial cost at 42 billion dollars every
year, equivalent to all official aid to
Africa in 2009.
The United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification, or UNCCD, works
to improve the well-being of the world's
drylands, re-establish and maintain productivity
of the land, and mitigate the effects of
drought. Achievement of this mission requires
evidence for informed decisions on investments
in the affected areas.
The UNCCD 10-year strategic
plan and framework for the implementation
of the Convention (2008-2018 spells out
specific objectives for achievement, along
with a set of impact and performance indicators
to measure progress.
The PRIAS project is
a new monitoring and reporting system, established
to build the capacity of UNCCD stakeholders
and coordinate data gathering to assess
progress. The results from these initial
phases are expected to provide the baseline
against which progress can be measured.
The cornerstone of the
project is the online "PRAIS"
portal. It enables long-term monitoring
of the Strategy by offering instant, worldwide
public access to baseline information on
the status of UNCCD implementation. This
current portal contains information provided
by the 2010 reporting cycle on performance
indicators for the period 2008-2009, as
well as the financial flows and best practices.
"PRAIS marks a
paradigm shift in all intergovernmental
efforts to enforce compliance. It is significant
because it invalidates the assumption that
achieving intergovernmental consensus on
how to measure compliance is impossible.
It is significant because measuring complex
and locally driven phenomena in order to
determine global trends is a challenge in
and of itself. But you cannot improve what
you cannot measure. PRAIS moves us into
the realm of measurability by providing
the basis on which we can assess progress
and also define the targets we want to reach
in combating desertification, land degradation
and in mitigating the effects of drought,"
says Mr. Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of
the UNCCD.
Measuring performance
is just the first step. From 2012, the data
and information in "PRAIS" will
be complemented by data on the impact made
by the Convention, at a minimum on two dimensions.
That is, the change in land cover status
and change in the proportion of the population
living above the poverty line. These two
mandatory and another nine optional impact
indicators will provide a strong basis for
increasing awareness and mobilizing resources
in the fight against the devastating consequences
of land degradation.
The PRAIS video was
launched concurrently in Bonn, Germany,
and Nairobi, Kenya, to coincide with two
parallel events which took place starting
on 21 February 2011. The 26th session of
the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) Governing Council and Global Ministerial
Environment Forum will take place in Nairobi
as the 9th session of the UNCCD Committee
for the Review of Implementation of the
Convention takes place in Bonn. PRAIS has
been funded by the Global Environment Facility
(GEF), implemented by UNEP, executed by
the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre,
in close collaboration with the UNCCD Secretariat
and Global Mechanism.
www.unccd-prais.com
Notes for editors:
The Global Environment
Facility (GEF), established in 1991, unites
178 countries in partnership with international
institutions, non-government organisations
and the private sector to address global
environmental issues while supporting national
sustainable development initiatives. Today
the GEF is the largest funding organisation
of projects to improve the global environment.
An independent financial organisation, the
GEF provides grants for projects related
to biodiversity, climate change, international
waters, land degradation, the ozone layer,
and persistent organic pollutants. Since
1991, GEF has achieved a strong track record
with developing countries and countries
with economies in transition, providing
US$8.3 billion in grants and leveraging
US$33.7 billion in co-financing for over
than 2,200 projects in more than 165 countries.
The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) , established in 1972,
is the voice for the environment within
the United Nations system. UNEP acts as
a catalyst, advocate, educator and facilitator
to promote the wise use and sustainable
development of the global environment. To
accomplish this, UNEP works with a wide
range of partners, including United Nations
entities, international organisations, national
governments nongovernmental organisations,
the private sector and civil society.
The UNEP World Conservation
Monitoring Centre is the biodiversity assessment
and biodiversity policy support arm of the
United Nations Environment Programme, the
world's foremost intergovernmental environmental
organisation. The Centre has been in operation
for over 25 years, providing objective,
scientifically rigorous products and services
to help decision makers recognise the value
of biodiversity and apply this knowledge
to all that they do. The Centre's core business
is locating data about biodiversity and
its conservation, interpreting and analysing
that data to provide assessments and policy
analysis, and making the results available
to both national and international decision
makers and businesses.
Established in 1994,
the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally
binding international agreement linking
environment and development issues to the
land agenda. The Convention focuses on all
the world's drylands, home to over 2 billion
people, 50% of the world's livestock and
accounting for 44% of all cultivated ecosystems.
The Convention's 194 Parties are dedicated
to combating land degradation and mitigating
the effects of drought in the drylands by
improving the living conditions of the affected
populations and ecosystems.
