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Highlights from Friday, 15 December
The Plenary convened for the first of two
dialogue sessions with NGOs on synergies between conventions and the
role of stakeholders.The Committee on Science and Technology (CST)
met in morning and afternoon sessions to adopt draft decisions and
conclude its work. Two days after it was scheduled to start, the ad
hoc working group to review CCD implementation (AHWG) met on
Friday and Saturday to review reports.
Above photo: The dias of the morning plenary included activities
of NGOs as part of the official programme
of work of the COP
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Plenary:
The UNFCCC represented by Janos Pasztor, underscored attaining
synergy at the national level, including through organizing
multi-stakeholder forums and increasing interactions among the
conventions.
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Representative from DESERT RESEARCH FOUNDATION, NAMIBIA stressed the importance of
harmonising synergies at the national level with those at the local
level.
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 Rogatien
Biaou, Benin, gave examples of crosscutting activities relating
to the Rio Conventions, which covered integrated water resource
management, reforestation, revegetation and tree cultivation and the
promotion of renewable energy resources. He said synergies should be
complementary and additional to the provisions of the conventions.
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The GERMAN NGO FORUM ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT represented
by Jürgen Maier underscored the need for coherent national
policies. The GLOBAL MECHANISM (GM) outlined activities relating
to promotion of enabling environments to enhance civil society
involvement in National Action Programmes (NAP), and exchanges
between resource users, noting that these will be upscaled in
the future.
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Committee
of Science and Technology: CST
 The
CST also adopted draft decisions: on the CST-5 work programme
deciding that the Committee should work on strategies for
communication and information to generate best practices for
combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought;
on the review and implementation of scientific and technical
aspects of national reports, inviting Parties to develop a
minimum set of impact indicators for future selection of a set
of basic indicators, to mobilize support for affected country
Parties, and encouraging Parties to better integrate the
scientific and technical community activities in CCD
implementation.
Above
photo (R-L): CST Chair Olarewanju Smith (Canada) in
consultation with Ahmed Cissoko (Secretariat) during this
morning's CST session
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The
AHWG adopted its work programme and elected three Vice Chairs,
Mohammed Reza Jabbari (Iran), Octavio Perez Pardo (Argentina) and
Ogtay Jafarov (Azerbaijan) who will act as Rapporteur. Delegates
then considered reports on CCD implementation in Cape Verde and
Senegal. 
