The workshop
PENHA in collaboration with Tropenbos International (TBI) is organising a national workshop on Dryland restoration and dry forest management in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 8-10 April 2021.
This three-day workshop will bring together some 40 experts and practitioners from key institutions, including governmental agencies, research institutes and NGOs, to share the state of knowledge on dryland restoration and dry forest management. Representatives of regional administrations will also provide updates on experiences from Amhara, Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, Somali and Tigray, with assessment of the current situation, describing challenges as well as successes, and suggesting ways forward. The final day will be focused on discussions to agree intended outcomes, next steps, roles and responsibilities.
Some basic questions to be addressed:
- What changes do we want to see in working landscapes?
- How are current programmes working, and what are the gaps?
- What works and should be scaled up? What is not working and needs changing? What is missing?
- How can we improve coordination and collaboration among stakeholders?
- How can we develop an appropriate policy framework for dryland restoration?
- Are the right policies and laws in place at national/regional level, and if not, what needs to be done?
Objectives
The goal is to reach consensus on how to improve coordination and impact of restoration activities, by:
(i) increased coordination and collaboration among stakeholders, across regional and national levels;
(ii) improved implementation and management; and
(iii) strengthened knowledge management systems that support dryland restoration and policy goals.
This will be achieved in four ways:
- Sharing information on current programmes – governmental and non-governmental – and suggesting ways to enhance knowledge-sharing and collaboration.
- Assessing current plans, policies and strategies across regions and at national level.
- Identifying gaps and weaknesses in policy formulation, analysis and programme implementation.
- Highlighting priorities for policy actions that strengthen the knowledge and information base, and that enhance organizational and institutional effectiveness.
Outputs
A platform for dryland-focussed policy development, including relevant government and non-governmental actors, focused on landscape restoration in the drylands, dryland development, and climate change mitigation and adaption. Specific tasks, roles and responsibilities will be agreed, and a working group will meet every 3-4 months, to lead a process aimed at producing a draft national dryland restoration strategy by December 2021.
A publication on Dryland Restoration in Ethiopia, combining workshop papers with analytical overviews on selected issues, to be edited and produced by TBI/PENHA.
Background
This workshop is organized under a new programme coordinated by Tropenbos International (TBI) and the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA). This forms part of the Working Landscapes programme financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (2021-23), that focuses on the roles and contributions of forests and trees to building climate-smart landscapes, improved livelihoods and environmental integrity, in support of achieving the Paris Agreement and the SDGs. In early 2020, TBI and PENHA began to assess key gaps regarding dryland restoration and dry forest management in Ethiopia, and identified a ‘Top 20’ challenges hampering the scaling up of successes. Followed by a series of stakeholder interviews and further analysis, a programme was developed, which is to be launch at this workshop.
For further information
-Amsale Shibeshi – Regional programmes coordinator, PENHA, Somaliland/Ethiopia
(ashibeshi@hotmail.com, +251 93 0800881, +252 63 4416203 for Whatsapp)
-Nick Pasiecznik – Dryland restoration coordinator, Tropenbos International, the Netherlands (nick.pasiecznik@tropenbos.org)
PENHA is a regional NGO, combining grassroots project implementation with research and policy analysis, focusing on rangelands and dry forests, governance and gender. The team working with TBI is led by Mitiku Haile, Professor at Mekelle University and PENHA Senior Advisor, alongside Amsale Shibeshi, Regional Programmes Coordinator, and John Livingstone, Regional Policy and Research Officer. PENHA was established in 1989 by concerned professionals from the Horn, is registered in the UK and operates across the Horn, with offices in Addis Ababa, Hargeisa and London.
Tropenbos International addresses complex questions regarding the sustainable management of forests and trees, by collecting and analysing knowledge, and organizing stakeholder interactions as a neutral intermediary. TBI is a network of independent member and partner organizations in more than ten countries, with a mission to improve the governance and management of tropical forests for the benefit of people, biodiversity and sustainable development. TBI was established in 1986 and is registered in the Netherlands, with headquarters in Ede-Wageningen.
