CONCEPT NOTE for PROJECT Development Facility

6 April 2005 WB/GEF Strategic Investment Program (SIP) concept

CONCEPT NOTE for PROJECT Development Facility

Request for Pipeline Entry Approval

Agency’s Project ID:

GEFSEC Project ID:

Country: Regional (sub-Saharan Africa)

Project Title: Strategic Investment Program for Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SIP).[1]

GEF Agency: World Bank

Other Executing Agency(ies):

Duration: 1st 4-year tranche (with two 4-year tranches to follow)

GEF Focal Area: Land Degradation, with reference to International Waters, Integrated Ecosystem Management, and Biodiversity.

GEF Operational Program: 15, with reference to 1, 9, 12, and 13.

GEF Strategic Priority: (under GEF-4) SLM-1, SLM-2, SLM-3, SLM-4, EM-1, IW-3, BD-2, SPA

Estimated Starting Date:

Estimated WP Entry Date:

Pipeline Entry Date: (if applicable)

Financing Plan (US$)
GEF Allocation
Project (estimated)* / 100,000,000 (tranche 1)
Project Co-financing (estimated) / 400,000,000
PDF A
PDF B / Request forthcoming
PDF C

Sub-Total GEF PDF

PDF Co-financing (details provided in Part II, Section E – Budget)
GEF Agency / World Bank
National Contribution
Others
Sub-Total PDF Co-financing:
Total PDF Project Financing:

* Amount is indicative depending on outcome of GEF Replenishment

A related project, Ethiopia Country Program for SLM (ECPSLM), is

attached as an illustrative first project proposal under theSIP umbrella.

Record of endorsement on behalf of the Government:

(Enter Name, Position, Ministry) / Date: (Month, day, year)
Letters of support from core countries and NEPAD will be sent with PDF proposal.
This proposal has been prepared in accordance with GEF policies and procedures and meets the standards of the GEF Project Review Criteria for approval.
Steve Gorman
GEF Executive Coordinator, World Bank / Project Contact Person
Christophe Crepin
Date: May 9, 2005 / Tel. and email: 202-473-9727

9 May 2005 WB/GEF Strategic Investment Program (SIP) concept

______

Program Concept for GEF Pipeline Entry for the

WB/GEF Strategic Investment Program

for Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SIP)

______

9 May 2005

World Bank

Africa Region

Washington DC

Acronyms

AAPP African Agricultural Productivity Program

AfDB African Development Bank

CAADP NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program

CARI Centre d'Actions et de Réalisations Internationale

CAS World Bank Country Assistance Strategy

CB Capacity building

CDD Community-driven development

CGIAR Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

CI Conservation International

CIAT International Centre for Tropical Agriculture

CILSS Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (Comité Inter États de Lutte contre la Sécheresse au Sahel)

CIRAD Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement.

COMIFAC Commission on Central African Forests (Commission des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale)

CPP Country Pilot Program

CRIC Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (UNCCD)

DFID Department for International Development (UK)

EA GEF executing agency

EC European Union Commission

ENCCD Ethiopian NGOs/CBOs Network for the Convention to Combat Desertification

EU European Union

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization

FARA Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

FIELD Financial Information Engine on Land Degradation (of the GM)

GEF Global Environment Facility

GM Global Mechanism (of the UNCCD)

GTD Groupe de Travail Désertification

GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit

IA GEF implementing agency (UNDP, UNEP, WB)

IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

ICRAF International Center for Research in Agroforestry

IDA International Development Association

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute

IGAD Intergovernmental Authority on Development

ILRI International Livestock Research Institute

IRD Development Research Institute

ITC TerrAfrica Interim Technical Committee

IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (World Conservation Union)

IWMI International Water Management Institute

KM Knowledge management

LADA Land Degradation Assessment for Drylands (GEF project)

M&E Monitoring and evaluation

MDG Millennium Development Goals

MEA Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

METF Mid Term Expenditure Framework

NAP CCD National Action Programme

NARI National Agricultural Research Institute

NBSAP CBD National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan

NCCD National Center to Combat Desertification

NCSAs National Capacity Self Assessments (a GEF-funded project)

NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development

NI Neuchâtel Initiative

NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation

NTFP Non-timber forest products

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OED Operations Evaluation Department

OP GEF operational program

OSS Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel/ Sahara and Sahel Observatory

PDF GEF Project Development Facility (block A, block B, block C)

PEP Poverty-Environment Partnership

PER Public Expenditure Reviews

PRSC Poverty Reduction Support Credit

PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

SADC Southern African Development Community

SFI Soil Fertility Initiative

SIP TerrAfrica Strategic Investment Program

SP GEF Strategic Priority

SRO Subregional Organizations

SSA Sub-Saharan Africa (47 countries as defined by the World Bank Africa Region)

UNCBD UN Convention on Biological Diversity

UNCCD UN Convention to Combat Desertification

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

USAID United States Agency for International Development

Program Concept for GEF Pipeline Entry for the

WB/GEF Strategic Investment Program

for Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SIP)

PART ONE: Program Concept

I. Background: Land Degradation and the Case for SLM Scale-up in SSA page 5

A. The Problem

B. Lessons Learned

C. TerrAfrica

II. Summary of the WB/GEF SIP Concept page 9

A. SIP Objectives, Value Added, and World Bank Role

B. Expected Intermediate Results of the WB/GEF SIP

C. Expected Higher-Order Results of the WB/GEF SIP

III. Country Ownership page 14

A. Country Eligibility

B. Country Drivenness

IV. Program and Policy Conformity page 17

A. Program Designation and Conformity

B. Program Design

1. Baseline Scenario

2. GEF Alternative Scenario

C. Sustainability and Replicability

D. Stakeholder Involvement

E. Monitoring and Evaluation

V. Financing and Cost Effectiveness page 25

A. Financing Plan

B. Cost Effectiveness

VI. Institutional Coordination and Support page 26

A. Closely Related Commitments and Linkages involving the WB

B. Consultation, Coordination, Collaboration among IAs and EAs

C. Full Program Implementation Arrangements

Annex: I: Ethiopia: Country Program for SLM

Annex II: Examples of non-GEF WB projects in SSA with SLM synergies

Annex III: GEF-funded LD, IW, and BD projects in SSA with SLM synergies

Annex IV: TerrAfrica Infobrief

Annex V: List of participants at the TerrAfrica Framing Workshop

PART TWO: Response to Reviews

I. Response to GEFSEC review for pipeline entry

II. Response to UNCCD review for pipeline entry

III. Response to UNEP review for pipeline entry

IV. Response to FAO review for pipeline entry

9 May 2005 WB/GEF Strategic Investment Program (SIP) concept

PART ONE: Program Concept

I. Background: Land Degradation and the Case for SLM Scale-up in Sub-Saharan Africa

A. The Problem

1. Land degradation in SSA is a critical economic, social and environmental threat that must be addressed for countries to realize their sustainable development goals, while securing critical global commons. As a profoundly intertwined poverty-environment challenge, the costs of land degradation can be high and the root causes diverse. Where land degradation continues unchecked, ecosystem sustainability is seriously threatened if not directly compromised while the productive capacity of land resources is significantly reduced. This in turn directly impacts economic growth and the livelihoods and incomes of rural populations.

2. At least 485 million Africans are affected by land degradation,[2] making this threat one of the continent’s urgent development issues with significant costs: Africa is burdened with a $9.3 billion annual cost of desertification.[3] Over 3% of agricultural GDP is lost annually to soil and nutrient loss in SSA, while two-thirds of arable African land has already suffered degradation and is expected to be lost by 2025. In that same year, 25 countries are projected to face water scarcity, in turn hindering agricultural intensification efforts. Although Africa hosts only 17% of the world’s forests, the continent accounts for over half of global deforestation.[4] While the cumulative loss of crop productivity from land degradation worldwide between 1945 and 1990 has been estimated at 5 percent, as much as 6.2 percent of productivity has been lost in SSA.[5]

3. Land-use patterns in the region are complex and multiple. The vast majority of cultivation and livestock is managed by smallholders, and nomadism is present in some areas. Other land resources are also widely used, including medicines, raw materials for construction and crafts, bushmeat, and wood for fuel. Together, they contribute up to 40 per cent of household incomes.[6] With most Sub-Saharan Africans directly dependent on land resources, and with a high level of rural poverty, agriculture and the rural space are considered by SSA governments to be critical elements of national development, poverty reduction strategies, and social stability. All of these aspects together reflect a very strong regard for land in SSA, but have driven competition for natural resources in the absence of effective mechanisms for managing trade-offs.

4. Inappropriate agricultural, animal husbandry, and forest land management in SSA often results in land degradation (including desertification) and precipitates further natural resource degradation. Human-induced root causes of land degradation include unsustainable agricultural practices, such as short fallow periods, burning, improper irrigation, inefficient use of inorganic fertilizers, overgrazing, and deforestation. These factors may be exacerbated in many SSA countries by population growth, poorly managed intensification, weak policy environments, disincentives and perverse incentives (such as poor land tenure rights), high input cost (which limits the ability of farmers to maintain soil nutrient balances), and poorly developed marketing and infrastructure.[7]

5. For example, soil nutrient depletion is common in many SSA and land-scarce countries and often leads to inadequate vegetative soil cover and increased susceptibility of the land to erosion. Excessive rainfall runoff from poorly vegetated soils can result in floods and damage to urban and rural settlements, siltation of irrigation canals and hydroelectric reservoirs, and destruction of coral reefs. Wind erosion has local and global impacts. Global dust transport is currently being blamed for the transport of disease-causing bacteria and fungi that may be responsible for disease outbreaks in humans and livestock as well as in marine corals and sponges. Deforestation and land degradation also lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions from biomass burning, increased decomposition of soil organic matter, and reduced sinks. In SSA integrated water resource management is a fundamental part of sustained land-use productivity and aquifer recharge. These examples highlight the critical importance of land degradation as a significant cross-cutting theme with direct and indirect linkages and impacts on the components of the renewable natural resource base.

6. Because of the urgency of these threats and their negative impact on sustainability at all levels, land degradation has become an important element of the global environment agenda, as seen in GEF Council’s adoption of OP15, GEF’s new role as a funding mechanism of UNCCD, and in the formulation of Millennium Development Goals 1 and 7 and their later confirmation at the WSSD. Most recently, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s central finding, announced publicly in March 2005, was that the authors are “particularly alarmed by the evidence of strong linkages between the degradation of ecosystem services in drylands and poverty in those regions. Moreover, while historically, population growth has been highest in either urban areas or the most productive ecosystems such as cultivated lands, this pattern changed in the 1990s and the highest percentage rate of growth is now in drylands – ecosystems with the lowest potential to support that growth. These problems of ecosystem degradation and the harm it causes for human well-being are known to contribute to conflict and instability.” Clearly, land degradation is recognized by the international community as compromising ecosystem function, resilience, and interconnectivity. This is reflected in threats to the global environment, as land degradation drives terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity loss, reduces carbon storage functions of land cover and wetland sinks, compromises filtering functions affecting international water resources, and hinders efforts to adapt land-use production systems to climate change.

B. Lessons Learned

Towards SLM

7. Experience has shown that investment decisions that respond to these issues can alleviate poverty, maintain ecosystem services, and secure global environmental benefits by targeting the root causes of land degradation – but only through a long-term partnership approach across organizational and sectoral boundaries, embedded in the fairly recent concept of Sustainable Land Management (SLM).[8]

8. The goal of SLM is to combat land degradation by making better use of the natural renewable resource base comprised of soil, water, and terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, reducing the burden on ecosystem services while enhancing productive output and opportunities for economic growth. The potential of SLM to address a number of intertwined African development issues and secure the environmental stability of landscapes has already been demonstrated in localised settings throughout the continent; however, efforts to scale these successes up to a level that would begin to realise a significant region wide impact on land degradation have met with limited success.

Assessing Progress to Date

9. It was noted at the Sixth COP of the UNCCD that recent calls for actions from donors, SSA countries, and other key stakeholder consultations have pointed to two facts: 1) progress on the ground continues to fall short of expectations, and that 2) business as usual is unlikely to address the growing gaps between expectations, development assistance dialogues, country strategies, and domestic and international funding scenarios. We must recognize that the current approach is not likely to adequately address land degradation challenges across the diversity of SSA’s landscapes. Diagnostic reviews as well as past and on-going stocktakings have revealed a number of key interconnected reasons for the past shortcomings of investments designed to address land degradation:[9]

· Insufficient and inefficiently targeted funding,

· Inadequate long-term commitment, constituency and political will among governments and international partners,

· Inconsistent support for mainstreaming SLM, and lack of analytical underpinnings to support it;

· Lack of delivery mechanisms for scaling up SLM approaches, including known successes,

· A project-specific, or ad hoc approach focused on symptoms, which is not conducive to addressing root causes of land degradation,