In West Africa, the desert is moving at an annual rate of 5 km in semi-arid areas. Moreover, from 1975 to 2018, about 2.2 million km2 of degraded land were recorded. This is a real threat that often pushes people in rural areas to rush to urban areas due to the scarcity of arable land.

At the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification on Land. Life. Legacy: From Scarcity to Prosperity, ECOWAS experts were present and attended several panels on various topics to draw profit from best practices and recommendations on addressing desertification, particularly in West Africa.

Thousands of delegates at this Conference committed to restore one billion hectares of degraded lands by 2030, to promote decent land-based jobs for young people, and to strengthen their participation in the Convention process. Additionally, it was decided to build resilience to drought. Besides, special attention was paid to gender, which was the subject of an entire caucus and a joint policy statement.

Throughout this platform for experience sharing and negotiations, the ECOWAS team provided technical assistance to focal points and negotiators of Member States in meetings and negotiations led by the Secretariat of the Convention to combat Desertification. ECOWAS Commission was daily represented at meetings of the African Group and ensured the coordination of discussions among negotiators of the ECOWAS zone. This enabled them to better understand the challenges, direct priorities and facilitate emergence of better approaches for consensual position statement. In addition, the ECOWAS Commission organised a media briefing on drought and mitigation measures (http://news.aniamey.com/h/109421.html). The Commission also ensured visibility of the actions and results of its projects, developed and strengthened work partnerships.

ECOWAS continues to call for increased funding (i) to initiate continuous and sustained afforestation, (ii) combat bush fires and (iii) undertake other local and regional actions. Furthermore, the ECOWAS Commission encourages regional cooperation with a view to promoting new environment-friendly crop productions.