TerrAfrica 2009 Annual Report.

The problem of land degradation has bedeviled Africa for a long time, and investment to address it is critical for reducing risks to agriculture, forest, water, and energy sectors. Climate variability and change now adds to the challenge. In response to Sub-Saharan Africa’s repeated calls for action on land degradation, the TerrAfrica partnership was established in 2005 as a direct response. TerrAfrica partners are now generating results among the nineteen Sub-Saharan countries that participate in the platform.

The TerrAfrica partnership promotes an integrated response to the problem of land degradation. At its inception, the partnership set out to facilitate countries to develop program-based approaches to investment in sustainable land management (SLM), by bringing together sectors and stakeholders to share evidence, promote the agenda, align efforts, and build a network to scale up investment. This approach is based on the partnership’s business plan’s key focus areas on coalition building, knowledge management and investments.

Many Sub-Saharan governments are now streamlining SLM in their national and sector development plans and devoting national budget to SLM strategies such as soil fertility improvement and erosion control, agro forestry, re-vegetation of degraded landscapes, water harvesting, and watershed management. Many have adopted the program-based approach and have started developing holistic country investment frameworks for SLM. With the support from international and regional TerrAfrica partners, Sub-Saharan countries are undertaking analytical work to inform the design of the SLM investment frameworks. These investment frameworks are helping to align donors and garner resources around the common SLM developmental agenda, in line with the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness.

The TerrAfrica partners also continue to provide support to the countries to implement several SLM projects under the Strategic Investment Programme (SIP), a key operation of the Partnership’s portfolio.

Through the Africa Union’s NEPAD-CAADP, TerrAfrica continued providing relevant support in key African SLM-related issues such as climate change and agriculture. In this regard, the Partnership provided key inputs into the Africa Ministers of Agriculture’s sub theme on “Climate Change: Opportunities for enhanced investment and growth of African Agriculture”.

Through the past four years, the recognition of the significant role played by the Partnership has increased. Indeed, TerrAfrica has emerged as a model for donor alignment and more and more partners are aligning their resources with the TerrAfrica agenda through the TerrAfrica Leverage Fund (TLF) and/or through the platform’s simple joint annual work programming process. We invite all partners and stakeholders, to join hands with us as we advance the cause of Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa for the improvement of the environment and agricultural productivity, better livelihoods, reduced climate risks, and ultimately reduced poverty. Together we can make a difference and make poverty history.