The purpose of the Third Overall
Performance Study (OPS3), commissioned by the Global
Environment Facility (GEF) Council, is "to assess the
extent to which GEF has achieved, or is on its way towards
achieving its main objectives, as laid down in the GEF
Instrument and subsequent decisions by the GEF Council and
the Assembly, including key documents such as the
Operational Strategy and the Policy Recommendations agreed

The purpose of the Third Overall Performance Study (OPS3), commissioned by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council, is "to assess the extent to which GEF has achieved, or is on its way towards achieving its main objectives, as laid down in the GEF Instrument and subsequent decisions by the GEF Council and the Assembly, including key documents such as the Operational Strategy and the Policy Recommendations agreed as part of the Third Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund." (GEF/C.23/4) The OPS3 team recognizes that this study is taking place at a critical time and will provide input that

The objective of this study is to raise awareness and understanding of exposure and vulnerability to drought in Central Asian countries and the Caucasus and to introduce a strategic, pro-active framework of mitigation and prevention. The audiences of the report are the governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia. The report will further be of interest to NGOs and civil society, as well as donors.

Stakeholders' perceptions of
opportunities and constraints to sustainable land management
in Ethiopia was assessed through interviews and a review of
secondary data. Stakeholders included farmers as well as
representatives of development agencies, agricultural
organizations, donors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
and agricultural research systems. Stakeholders generally
perceive that the numerous, well-intentioned but piecemeal

This sourcebook is intended to be a
ready reference for practitioners (including World Bank
stakeholders, clients in borrowing countries, and World Bank
project leaders) seeking state-of-the-art information about
good land management approaches, innovations for
investments, and close monitoring for potential scaling up.
This sourcebook is divided into three parts: the first part
identifies the need and scope for sustainable land

“The great opportunity of the Anthropocene is that we can choose to learn the lessons of the past and steer a new course to a safer future.” Soils are the most significant nonrenewable geo-resource that we have for ensuring water, energy, and food security for present and future generations while adapting and building resilience to climatic change and shocks. But soil’s caring capacity is often forgotten as the missing link in our pursuit of sustainable development.

Land is our natural ally. But the natural conditions of land and soils are not eternal, and must be protected. Soil is the most significant geo-resource we have for ensuring water, energy and food security for present and future generations. Healthy soils are also vital for building resilience and adapting to climate change.

Since the early 1980s, the Government of
Niger and its development partners have invested more than
200 billion West African Francs (FCFA) in programs will
promote sustainable land management (SLM) and other
activities to reduce poverty and vulnerability. Overall,
more than 50 programs have promoted SLM in Niger. Despite
large investments in SLM programs, their impacts on land
management, agricultural production, poverty, and other

This review of the on-budget expenditure
of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR)
in Egypt describes the broad outline of the MARL's
expenditures and identifies key themes and issues. The
report examines how the context of the agricultural sector
has changed, and the adjustment challenge that such change
poses for the MALR. It explains how the MALR is thinking
about the future, describes the structures of the MALR, and

Livelihoods, food security, and
development processes in Sub-Saharan Africa are highly
dependent on land management practices to generate natural
ecosystem goods and services. Out of a total population of
about 717 million people, almost 60 percent depend for their
livelihood on agriculture, hunting, fishing, or forestry.
However, unsustainable land management already is leading to
large-scale land degradation trends, which pose a threat to

A Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) was
undertaken to assess the returns to land management
practices of major land use types, namely forests,
rangelands, and selected crops (rice, maize, cotton, and
millet). Also the public expenditure on SLM was reviewed
and an assessment carried out how the expenditure is aligned
to land policies and how it is targeted to land degradation
hotspots. The results show that, without some form of

Many experts believe that low-cost
mitigation opportunities in agriculture are abundant and
comparable in scale to those found in the energy sector.
They are mostly located in developing countries and have to
do with how land is used. By investing in projects under the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), countries can tap these
opportunities to meet their own Kyoto Protocol obligations.
The CDM has been successful in financing some types of