LOGME regional project: recommendations for greater efficiency

Members of the advisory council of the regional project “lands of opportunity in the Sahel” (LOGME) executed in Burkina Faso, Niger and Ghana met, Thursday, September 14, 2023, in Pô in the province of Nahouri , to discuss strategic options for its successful implementation in its three areas of intervention.

The regional project “Lands of Opportunity in the Sahel” (LOGME) is entering its last year of implementation in its intervention zones of Burkina Faso, Niger and Ghana. For the third time since its start in 2020, the members of the advisory council of the said project, this body responsible for providing advice for greater efficiency in achieving the expected results, were meeting.

“The LOGMe project organized the first meeting of the advisory committee virtually in October 2021, the second in September last year in Bolgatenga (in Ghana, editor’s note). We are therefore gathered in Po for the third meeting. It will make it possible, among other things, to present the achievements of year 3 of implementation as well as the results of the external evaluation of the project and to formulate recommendations for the last year of implementation,” said Thursday at the opening of the work, the program manager of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Doctor Jacques Somda.

The IUCN is in fact the implementing structure of the LOGMe project with financial support from the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security via the Global Mechanism (GM) of the United Nations Convention on Combating desertification of (CNULCD). It is implementing the project alongside other national partners in the three beneficiary countries.

In addition to the debates in the room, the meeting of the members of the advisory council offers the opportunity “to the donor and the initiator which is the Global Mechanism to visit the achievements to see what is happening on the ground”, said the focal point of the UNCCD in Burkina Faso, Lazard Tagnabou also representative of the Permanent Secretariat of the National Council for Sustainable Development (SP-CNDD).

Mr. Tagnabou, also speaking on behalf of his peers from Niger and Ghana, noted that in three years of implementation, “the LOGme project has enabled IUCN and its partners to invest in fight against the effects of drought and desertification, in particular the management of natural resources, the mobilization of water, the restoration of land, the promotion of value chains and energies through a participatory, community and inclusive approach “.

He cites results achieved such as improving governance and land planning, strengthening the production capacity of vulnerable sectors, promoting the restoration of hectares of agricultural land for the benefit of rural households, reducing consumption fuelwood by promoting improved stoves, promoting non-timber forest product value chains, distributing improved seeds and improving the capacity of farmers to raise bees.

“These hard-won achievements of the project despite the security situation in the three countries and in particular in Burkina Faso are a great contribution to policies in terms of governance of the agrosylvopastoral sectors,” underlined the representative of the Permanent Secretary of the CNDD of Burkina Faso, Mahamoudou Tiendrébéogo.

The representative of the UNCCD, Dr. Birguy Lamizana, welcomed the results obtained mid-term of the LOGMe project, recalling that they are part of the objectives targeted by the three beneficiary countries, all signatories of the UNCCD and which have developed their targets for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).

“At this stage, I can say that we are really satisfied, as is the Italian government which financed this project,” confided Ms. Lamizana, who cites as among other reasons for satisfaction the progress in the rates of physical and financial achievement and the satisfaction expressed by communities in the project beneficiary countries.

“This is what really pleases us to know that we can translate a country’s commitment policies like the Convention on Neutrality in Land Degradation into something very concrete which communities can see the benefits for improving their well-being,” said Dr. Birguy Lamizana.

Moreover, she hoped that, even at the end of its implementation, the beneficiary communities take ownership of the ambitions of the LOGMe project, of which they also contributed to defining the actions for their benefit.

Source: Burkina Information Agency