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REGIONAL IMPLEMENTATION ANNEX FOR ASIA:

This Annex is much shorter and more general in scope than the African Annex. The Asian countries felt that the level of detail that characterizes the African Annex would not be appropriate here, given the vast and varied geographical expanse of the region. Hence, it only contains eight articles: purpose; conditions of the region; framework and content of national action programmes; subregional and joint action programmes; regional activities; financial resources and mechanisms; and coordination and cooperation mechanisms. The Asian Governments decided not to articulate concrete commitments in their Annex since they did not want to be legally-bound to financial obligations. On the other hand, the financial resources and mechanisms provisions were not as elaborate as those in the African Annex. This was due in large part to the sentiment of the donor countries that the Asian countries are better able to mobilize local resources to deal with drought and desertification, especially since the impact in Asia has not been as severe as in the African region.