Effective drought policy negotiation ahead of the UNCCD COP16: Design, development and delivery of trainings

Responding to the outcomes of the 15th UNCCD Conference of Parties (COP) and the mandate of the 2022-2024 Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought (IWG), the FAO is implementing the project "Enabling activities for implementing UNCCD COP15 decisions on drought", executed by the UNCCD Global Mechanism and Funded by the GEF Trust Fund. The objective is to enable the UNCCD Parties to address drought-related challenges and gaps through integrated land and water management approaches and land-based interventions.

This collaboration between FAO and adelphi aims to strengthen countries' ability to support the consideration of national policy priorities on global drought policies ahead of the UNCCD COP 16 in Riyadh in December 2024, thereby supporting countries in achieving their drought-related goals and boosting the elevation of drought as a critical issue in the international agenda.

adelphi will provide its expertise to support the project's capacity-building, co-learning and collaboration efforts by designing and implementing trainings for UNCCD focal points of over 40 countries. A central task is to support focal points in developing core skills and delivering transformative tools to support them in finding policy cohesion accross sectors within their nationals contexts, as well as advancing their national priorities on the international level. The methodological approach consists of interactive mapping exercises to identify impacted sectors and cross-sectoral interactions, as well as key stakeholder groups and adequate engagement strategies with each of them. A further element of the training consists of simulating negotiation environments, with complex bilateral and global-level negotiation simulation exercises. Finally, the training will include knowledge inputs around global policy options and co-benefits across sectors.