WOCAT 2020+ - WOCAT 2020+

Engagement by members and partners in the network is low: The new organizational structure was set up in such a way that it responds to the needs of partners and guarantees their active involvement in WOCAT while benefitting from its services. The organizational structure will be evaluated on a continuous basis and, if engagement is low, it will be adjusted according to the needs and demands of partners. Government priorities shifting with less focus on SLM: The Regional Clusters will ensure continued collaboration with governments and their activities and engagement – also in view of SLM for achieving the SDGs - will contribute to keeping SLM high on the national agendas. Position of WOCAT within UNCCD weakened: Collaboration with UNCCD Secretariat on a number of high priority topics for the convention (gender, economics, SDS, drought, tenure, LDN) will generate evidence, tools and methods useful to the parties which will be actively shared. Capacities of parties will be further developed to make use of these tools. Collaboration with UNCCD focal points is prioritized under the new strategy. Resources generated for multi-donor basket fund not sufficient: The WOCAT Executive Team will prioritize engagement with donors and acquisition of sufficient resources. Virtual donor meetings will be organized with the support of the WOCAT Consortium Partners to bring interested donors together. In collaboration with regional partners, the Executive Team will raise funds for activities at Regional Cluster level. Personnel changes in the Executive Team, Secretariat and IT services affect functioning of the and network as a whole: The new organizational structure with an Executive Team, comprised of three institutions, and decentralized Secretariat functions (incl. IT), should be able to compensate personnel changes at an early stage. The Executive Team also has the possibility to outsource certain activities to Organizational Members or other partners, if needed. COVID-19 or other pandemic situation restricts network activities: Capacity development activities, meetings and events will be held online instead of face-to-face. The Executive Team and Consortium Partners have already gathered extensive experience during the 2020 lockdown and following restrictions in place.

(1) Proof: The first pillar will provide firm evidence about SLM and land degradation to policy makers, planners, land users, and the private sector. It will use and promote existing and new tools and methods for knowledge management and decision support in collaboration with local, national and international partners and initiatives. It will continue to promote the accessibility, analysis and dissemination of SLM good practices through the global WOCAT SLM database, as requested by UNCCD parties in Decision19/COP.14. It will use the growing dataset for comprehensive SLM analyses, including research on barriers to scaling up SLM and on the operationalization of landscape approaches. (2) Priority: The second pillar will guide evidence-based decision-making and priority setting on SLM, LDN, and addressing trade-offs between conflicting land uses and land-related sustainability targets at various levels. It will propose land-based solutions that are designed based on criteria that are equitably negotiated among stakeholders. It will focus on the role of gender in SLM decision-making and implementation and focus on tenure and equitable access to land and water. (3) Pull: The third pillar will address barriers to SLM adoption by identifying and tapping leverage points for SLM mainstreaming and integration in decision-making processes in policy, private sector, and civil society, for strategic planning, brokering collaboration and strengthened capacity. Such leverage points include finance and incentive mechanisms, land use planning processes, or awareness creation1. For that purpose, it will more actively integrate theories of social and behavioral science, and concepts of resources governance. Finally, it will emphasize on the combined impact of SLM actions towards addressing multiple issues for sustainable development and maintaining ecosystems and their services.

WOCAT 2020+ will bring together, guide, and support its network partners to harness pathways towards sustainable landscapes. While the choice of concrete pathways is strongly dependent on social-environmental characteristics in the targeted contexts, WOCAT 2020+ will tackle four key entry points with its network partners:

1. Facilitate support to land users and extension services at technical and socio-economic levels, e.g. through emphasizing the role and decision-making power of women in land management, or the inclusion of youth in agricultural production, or the importance of land tenure.
2. Development and implementation of landscape approaches for
   1. tackling SLM beyond the farm level,
   2. promoting multi-stakeholder processes for robust decision-making on landscape-level SLM strategies, and
   3. securing the ownership and support of relevant authorities.
3. Integrating, in collaboration with the private sector, SLM principles into value chains or certification schemes of commodities for local and global markets, and helping to mainstream SLM as a relevant criterion for private and public procurement.
4. Policy dialogue and support for working across the Rio Conventions and targets set, by integrating water, land, biodiversity, and climate policies into coherent context-relevant strategies.

UPDATES

In 2020, ICARDA’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Team developed tools such as the WOCAT digital explorer and the Central Asia Climate Portal. These tools pool valuable data and knowledge such as climate information and global agricultural innovations from official international sources to support organizations, policymakers, and researchers in decision-making, monitoring, and learning.

In 2021, ICARDA was thrilled when WOCAT published information on 10 ICARDA innovations. Our innovations, submitted by ICARDA’s MEL team, can now be referenced by agricultural experts all over the world, fulfilling ICARDA’s core vision of open-source knowledge sharing.

In 2022, ICARDA released two WOCAT publications on relay intercropping lentil-quinoa and lentil-onion. Also, Cactus pear development and adaption were strengthened by an informative newsletter sent to beneficiaries, registration under WOCAT, and by launching the Arabic version of the book through an event organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.