BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
In 2011, an effort was undertaken to link the GEF Land Degradation Focal Area Strategy and the UNCCD Ten-year (2008 to 2018) strategy to streamline investments in sustainable land management. This effort was conducted following paragraph 24 of the UNCCD Strategic Plan and Framework adopted by the COP (decision 3/COP.8), under which the “COP may invite the GEF to take into account this strategic plan and to align its operations accordingly in order to facilitate effective implementation of the Convention.” This report responds directly to two calls of this initiative.
As stated in paragraph 20 of the document linking the GEF focal area strategy and the UNCCD strategy, “Accounting for Land Degradation Focal Area investments in a spatially quantifiable manner will foster a more accurate picture of GEF’s contribution to combating land degradation globally.” 1 Contained in this report, and made available for future analysis, is information on the geographic location (include exact latitude and longitude) of GEF LD projects, as well as related measurements following the indicators suggested in the monitoring framework of the UNCCD for measuring land degradation (UNCCD 2015).
As stated in paragraph 6 of the same document, “An important aspect of linking the Strategies is therefore related to the outcomes, impacts and associated indicators, all of which serve to inform project design by all stakeholders. Annex 1 is an attempt to link the expected impacts (and proposed indicators) of the UNCCD strategic objectives with the results-based management framework of the GEF Land Degradation Focal Area.” This report presents an operationalization of this objective, building on the project-based reporting available to date by extending such analyses to individual project locations.