Coalition Building, Communication, and Social Media for Greater Awareness by TerrAfrica Gayatri Kanungo and Madjiguene Seck, World Bank TerrAfrica Team
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ustainable land and water management (SLWM) has proven to be central to combating desertification and increasing agricultural productivity. SLWM provides multiple dividends to livelihoods, growth, social protection, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. In essence, SLWM sustains the people, preserves the land, and impacts vegetation cover and composition—all contributing to a green economy. Creating awareness on these issues has helped us—the beneficiaries— better understand that desertification and land degradation threaten the processes that sustain the global ecosphere and life on earth.
dissemination of information in stronger partnerships with governments and international institutions.
Clearly, combating desertification, land rehabilitation, SLWM, livelihood generation, and awareness raising are all now part of the same equation— given that raising awareness is inherently linked to these key issues, and even more closely to the ones on meeting basic needs, capacity building, and data and information. Creating equitable access and ownership through awareness creation and communication are critical for success.
Twenty-eight partner institutions from across the world, consisting of research institutes, universities, NGOs and SMEs, have started a large integrated research project—the DESIRE—to establish promising alternative land use and management conservation strategies in 16 degradation and desertification hotspots around the world.
Cognizant of the fact that civil society organizations play a key role in influencing national, regional, and global policy making, their efforts in promoting and enhancing awareness around critical land issues need to be brought into the discussion. It is encouraging to see that there is a spread in both the numbers and types of actors involved in communication and
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This featured section focuses upon approaches used by selected civil society, groups, and organizations—the DESIRE project, Sustainable Development for the Negev, and TerrAfrica—in building awareness. It captures the successful link created up the chain between beneficiaries as well as policy makers in the context of land degradation and desertification.
Similarly, the Sustainable Development for the Negev was set up to increase public awareness and involvement; data collection and analyses; education discussions; and local, regional, and international cooperation on environmental issues and use of natural resources.
