Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) LEAD is an international initiative that analyzes livestock/environment interactions in order to protect natural resources and rationalize their use while combating poverty.
Drylands Development Centre (DDC) The Drylands Development Centre (DDC) is a centre of excellence dedicated to working with people to fight poverty in the drylands of the world. The Centre helps to influence policies and bring about lasting changes. UNDP's Drylands Development Centre formerly the Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO) originated in 1973 as the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office". It was created in response to the severe effects of recurrent droughts in the Sahel, and became widely known by its acronym, UNSO. For many years, UNSO delivered a range of drought relief and development services in the Sahel under the management of UNDP. It was originally based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, but later transferred its headquarters to UNDP in New York.
World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP) The World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP) is a global initiative that supports the empowerment of pastoralists to sustainably manage drylands resources. WISP enables pastoralists to demonstrate that their land use and production system is an effective and efficient way of harnessing the natural resources of the world’s drylands.
Institutional and Policy Support Team (IPST) The Institutional and Policy Support Team (IPST) is part of the Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources of the African Union.There is a need for strong support from the AU in terms of how to develop appropriate policy and institutions. In the livestock sub-sector this role falls to IBAR and specifically the IBAR Institutional and Policy Support Team (IPST). The IPST is currently working with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)to ensure integration of IPST activities in the emerging livestock strategy of NEPAD. The key policy areas of the IPST are: Livestock Trade and Marketing, Public-Private Delivery of Primary Animal Health Services, Conflict in Cross-Border Pastoral Ecosystems, and Development Relief in the Livestock Sub-Sector.
FAO Crop and Grassland Service (AGPC), Grassland and Pasture/Crop Systems The FAO Crop and Grassland Service (AGPC) helps FAO member countries achieve sustainable increases in production of crops and grasslands, through plant improvement, application of plant biotechnology, development of integrated production systems, and rational grassland management.
World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP) The World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP) is a global alliance of nomadic peoples and communities. It aims to assist and empower people throughout the world to maintain their mobile lifestyles, pursue their livelihoods, maintain their cultural identity, sustainably manage their common property resources, and to have their rights fully respected.
World Herders Council (CME) The World Herders Council is an Advocate for livestock keeping, which supports ‘optimal production’ without genetic manipulation or over-exploitation of the ecosystem. At the initiative of African Pastoralists – facing problems of livestock development in the Sahel and the Savannah – the World Herders Council (WHC) was founded in November 1997 in Dori, Burkina Faso. The General Secretariat is based in Lucerne, Switzerland.
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) In 1992, when the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) convened in the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the question of how to deal with issues of land degradation was on the agenda, since it was still of serious concern to most countries of the world. The conference, therefore, requested the UN General Assembly to prepare by June 1994, a Convention to Combat Desertification. As a result the UNCCD came into force in December 1996. The objective of this Convention is to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought in countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, through effective action at all levels, consistent with Agenda 21, with a view to contributing to the achievement of sustainable development in affected areas.
