27 May 2015: Three West African Sahelian countries have convened national consultations on how to harness innovative financing mechanisms, including diaspora investments, to urgently address the links between forced migration and desertification, land degradation and drought.

Participants at the two-day workshops, which took place in, respectively, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (from 9-10 April), Niamey, Niger (from 13-14 April) and Dakar, Senegal (from 23-24 April), discussed the multiple challenges faced when managing internal migration flows and natural resources in destination zones, and developed recommendations for follow up activities to support sustainable land management (SLM) and climate change resilience in the three countries.

The discussions took place as part of a joint project by the Global Mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD GM) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is funded by the Italian Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The three-year project aims to support the three countries to: “integrate the SLM-migration nexus” into national development and budgetary policies; promote economic opportunities and an improved investment climate for SLM in areas subject to desertification and migration; and disseminate best practices in innovative funding for SLM in West Africa in pertinent international fora. [Global Mechanism News Release] [Project Brochure]