UNSO will provide support to policy development, advice and institutional capacity development to address drylands development. Drought is a normal feature of climate and its recurrence is inevitable. However, there remains much confusion within the scientific community and policy community about its characteristics. It is precisely this confusion that explains to some extent the lack of progress in drought management throughout the world. Land tenure One of the major obstacles to sustainable development and increase of productivity in the drylands is the lack of land tenure, access to and rights to use land in both rural and urban settings.
Land is the most valuable asset for the poor people living in the drylands.
The poor depend directly on land, what they grow on it, or what they can gather or catch from it for their livelihoods. Where people or communities do not have tenure or adequate rights to use land, there is little incentive to invest in sustainable management of the land, and the land can not be used as collateral to raise capital to invest in increased production. UNSO will assist countries in developing appropriate land tenure policies. In line with UNDP's general policy on information dissemination, sharing and knowledge management and in order to promote mainstreaming of dryland development issues in UNDP's work at country level, UNSO will build on and further develop its capacity as the leading source for information and knowledge on dryland issues.