The State of Eritrea

Ministry of Agriculture Newsletter

A Monthly Newsletter prepared by the Public Relations Division, Issue No 48, June 2022

Eritrea Participates at the 15th Conference of Parties of the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
According to its official document,
the United Nations Convention toCombat Desertification (UNCCD)
was established in 1994 toprotect and restore our land andensure a safer, just, and moresustainable future. It is also to
be noted that the UNCCD is theonly legally binding framework
set up to address desertificationand the effects of drought. Asof now, there are 197 Parties tothe Convention, including 196

country Parties and the EuropeanUnion. The Convention – basedon the principles of participation,partnership and decentralization– is a multilateral commitment
to mitigate the impact of landdegradation, and protect our landso we can provide food, water,
shelter and economic opportunity
to all people.

as its main decision-making body.
It is made up of governments
and organizations such as theEuropean Union and is responsible
for guiding the Convention so thatit can respond to global challenges
and national needs.

COP is mandated to review
reports submitted by the Parties
detailing how they are generally
The Conference of the Parties (COP) striving to fight Desertification,
was established by the Convention Land degradation and drought;

1and specifically carrying out theirLand
Degradation
Neutrality(LDN); drought initiative and otherinterrelated commitments andmake recommendations on thebasis of these reports. It also has
the power to make amendments
to the Convention or to adopt
new annexes (documents which
specify how the Convention will be
implemented), such as additional
regional implementation annexes.
The COP has been meetingbiennially since 2001, and has held
14 sessions. The UNCCD COP15
was convened from 9-20 May
2022 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. A
delegation of experts from theMinistry of Agriculture (MoA)
headed by Mr. Michael Berhane,
Director of Natural Resources andIrrigation Development Divisionat the Agricultural Extension
Department (AED), participatedat the Conference. The Public
Relations Division of the MoA has
conducted an interview with Mr.
Michael with regards to Eritrea’s
engagement in the UNCCD COPs.

Mr. Michael Berhane

and the Caribbean, Northern
Mediterranean and Central andEastern European country Partiesin preparation to COP15 wasconvened. Then, A High-level
opening ceremony, including aQuestion: When did Eritrea become Heads of States Summit, roundtables and interactive dialogue
a member of this convention?
sessions among ministers andAnswer: UNCCD was established other high-ranking officials usuallyin 1994. The convention’s core take place on the first days of themission is fighting land degradation, COP.
drought and desertification. For
obvious reason, these issues are Then after, negotiations that focus
among major challenges of Eritrea on the work of the fifteenth sessionin its journey towards ensuring of the Committee on Science andsafe and nutritious food; and for Technology (CST 15), the twentieththat matter Eritrea ratified its session of the Committee for theReview of the Implementation
membership in 1996.
of the Convention (CRIC 20), andQ: What were the main agendas to other major issues were also
included in the programme ofof the COP 15?
A: Usually, the UNCCD COPs work of the COP.
include a number of events withinthem. Prior to the official session,
regional consultations of affected
country Parties of the Convention’s
regional implementation annexes
for Africa, Asia, Latin America

Side events and experiencesharing among country parties anddifferent development partners
were also important componentsof the COPs.

2

Q: Are there any targets set by thisconvention to fight drought, landdegradation and desertification(DLDD)
A: Dynamic targets were set
globally and at national level bycountry parties. For instance,accordingtotheUNCCD
consolidated target, globally,around one billion hectares ofdegraded land is expected to berestored until 2030.
In September 2015, the global
community agreed on “The2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment”,including
17
Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) and 169 targets (UnitedNations, 2015). Target 15.3 aims
to “combat desertification, restore
degraded land and soil, including
land affected by desertification,
drought and floods, and strive toachieve a land degradation-neutral
world by 2030.”
The twelfth session of theConference of Parties (COP) ofthe United Nations Convention toCombat Desertification (UNCCD),
held in Ankara, Turkey in October
2015, endorsed SDG target
15.3 and the concept of landdegradation neutrality (LDN) asa strong vehicle for driving theimplementation of the Convention.
It invited all UNCCD country Parties
to formulate voluntary targets toachieve LDN and requested UNCCD
bodies to provide “guidance forformulating national LDN targets
and initiatives” and to facilitate“the use of the UNCCD indicator
framework as a contribution
to the monitoring, evaluationand communication of progress national and international UNCCD
towards the national LDN targets”. obligations in implementing theprovision of the Convention.
Q: How is Eritrea rated in Moreover,theGovernment
its performance within the adopted
LandDegradation
convention?
Neutrality
TargetSetting
A: Eritrea, like many other Programme (LDN-TSP) voluntarily
countries, has set voluntary land because it forms part of its
degradation neutrality targets. continued efforts for sustainable
However, the set targets are not land management.
only meant for the sake of thecountry’s commitment to global According to the study of the LDNagendas but to rehabilitate its TSP conducted in 2017, a total ofdegraded land to boost agricultural 1,190,553 hectares of land wereproductivity.
identified as hot spot areas (thatThe country has shown its seek immediate action) which iscommitment in achieving the 9.77 % of the total land mass ofstrategies and objectives of UNCCD. Eritrea.
To mention but a few; The Ministryof Agriculture (MoA) has aligned As an overall national target, thethe National Action Program (NAP) country is working to achieve LDN
with the UNCCD 10-Years Strategy by 2030 as compared to 2015 (no(2008-2018). This ensured the net loss). In addition, the country
government’s commitment and has set a target to fully accomplish
compliance with the UNCCD’s disseminationofimproveddecision (3/COP.8 of 2007) that traditional stoves (Adhanet) before
states affected country parties “to 2030.
align their action programmes and All in all, even though a lot hasother relevant implementation yet to be done, the country has
activities relating to the convention made remarkable progress in landwith the strategy by, inter alia, restoration and reclamation that
addressing the outcomes under lead towards achieving the LDN.
the five operational objectives.”
Hence, the Government of the Q: Let’s come back to Eritrea’s
State of Eritrea (GoSE) reaffirms participation in the COPs andNAP as a working document for other UNCCD events. How does
the past five years to meet the the country engage in the events?

3

A: Eritrea is always pro-active
in executing its duties including
contribution fees, participationin the UNCCD events, sharing
its experiences in different
platforms and so on. For instance,
it is one of the few countries that
regularly shares and presents its
experience in different platforms.
During the COPs, Eritrea has
been participating in audio-visual
exhibitions that display goodpractices and country experiencewith regard to land restoration andreclamation programs as well as
drought mitigation activities.
Generally, the country participatesin the regular meetings of UNCCD
including the annual meeting of
the Committee for Review andImplementation of the Convention(CRIC), bi-annual meeting of
the Committee for Science andTechnology (CST) and bi-annual
meeting of Conference of Parties(COP) biannual meeting.
Q: What were the maindeliberations of the UNCCD
COP 15?
A: The following are among the key
outcomes of COP-15; Restore one
billon hectares of degraded land
between now and 2030; boostdrought preparedness, response
and resilience; future-proof land
use against the impacts of climate

change; tackle escalating disasterrisks such as sand and dust storms;
address desertification and landdegradation as drivers of forced
migration and displacement;
strengthen land right and genderequality as important enablers
for effective land restoration,and promote decent land- based
jobs for youth and strength
youth participation in the UNCCD
process.
Q: What’s unique with COP 15?
A: COP 15 was the first official
physical meeting of the UNCCD
country parties after the covid-19
pandemic. The COP was attended
by more than 2000 participantsfrom 196 country parties and theEuropean Union.
A number of heads of states,
ministers and high level countries’
representatives participated in thisimportant event.

The African group played an
important role to include issues
that are relevant to the continent
in the UNCCD deliberations.
However, there is still a need for acoordinated effort to address theissue of drought.
When it comes to Eritrea’s
participation,
thecountry’s
delegation was gender-sensitive
with two young males and two
young females, composed ofdirectors and experts from theMinistry of Agriculture anda member from Eritrea’s UN
permanent representative in NewYork.
The demise of the long serving
Eritrea’s National Focal Point (NFP)
to the UNCCD, the late Heruy
Asghedom, just few days before
the kick-off of the COP 15 was also
specially noted and was observedwith one-minute of silencein two platforms namely; theAfrican Working Group Session,and African Initiative to Combat
Desertification (AI-CD).
Moreover, the delegation got
a chance to celebrate Eritrea’sIndependence with the small butvery vibrant Eritrean community inIvory Coast.
Q: If you have final words todeliver?
A: Fighting land degradation,
drought,
desertification
andbiodiversity loss are still among thetop priorities of the Governmentof the State of Eritrea. Hence, wehave to seriously address thesenational and global issues andtheir interrelated problems so thatwe play our role in creating a safer,just, and more sustainable planet.
Thank you Mr. MichaelA minute of silence for the late Heruy Asghedom in the AI-CD Platform
Editor-In-ChiefErmias Solomon, Director of Public Relations Division
Email:- ersohab@gmail.com, Tel: 182225/ 07143877, P.O.Box 1048, Asmara, Eritrea
Assistant-Editor-In-Chief
Filmawit Measho, Public Relations Division, Information and Protocol Unit Head
Email:- fili.megeb@gmail.com, Tel: 182225/ 07182662, Asmara, Eritrea
Editorial BoardHara Weldetnsae, Shushan Okbay, Andemeskel BerhePhoto credit: Aradom Bereket, Habteab Andemariam, Thomas Mehari4