WOCAT Symposium, Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Up- and Out scaling Sustainable Land Management and Achieving Land Degradation Neutrality
WOCAT Symposium and Field Day Ethiopia,
13 to 18 May 2019.
Meeting Invitation
and Thematic Scope
The Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia, CIAT, WLRC and WOCAT
jointly invite participants to
the WOCAT Symposium and the field day. The aim of the event is to bring together a wide range of
WOCAT members and stakeholders to share and discuss their experiences and findings on how WOCAT has been used in the past and how it could
be used in the future
for up- and out-scaling
Sustainable Land Management and for achieving Land Degradation
Neutrality and other Sustainable Development Goals. From the perspective of
WOCAT, this meeting will be also very crucial to pave the way forward beyond the end of the current
WOCAT phase in 2019. With WOCAT being externally evaluated in the first half of this year,
the
meeting will
provide a major foundation for this evaluation.
The WOCAT Symposium has its thematic focus on
‘Up- and Out-scaling Sustainable Land Management and
Achieving Land Degradation
Neutrality’. Sustainable Land Management
(SLM) provides the foundation for ensuring food security, climate change adaptation and
mitigation, preventing and reducing natural disasters, and
maintaining and protecting
biodiversity. SLM therefore is essential for preventing and
reducing land
degradation, and for
restoring degraded land. As such, SLM
can
be considered a key element for achieving the
SDGs of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development - particularly for SDG 15 on
sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and SDG target 15.3 on Land Degradation Neutrality
(LDN) (ICCD/COP(12)/20/Add.1:decision 3/COP.12,
UNCCD COP12) - as well
as in the LDN
initiative by the UNCCD.
The
LDN initiative is intended for countries to
halt
the
ongoing loss of healthy land caused by
degradation which affects more than 3.2 billion people (IPBES 2018). LDN creates a target for managing land degradation, through a dual-pronged approach of measures to avoid or reduce
degradation of land, combined with measures to reverse past degradation. Many countries
have set LDN targets which they will need to achieve by 2030.
Countries all over the world
must take action for halting and reversing land degradation in order to protect and sustain ecosystem services and biodiversity and to
ensure human well-being, contributing to
achieving the SDGs.
WOCAT (the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies www.wocat.net) as a global network of SLM specialists contributes to SLM and LDN by sharing and evaluating knowledge and promoting the use of standardized methods and tools to document and evaluate SLM in view of evidence-based decision-making. The Global SLM Database of WOCAT (https://qcat.wocat.net/en/wocat/) is recognized by the UNCCD as the primary recommended database for best
practices on SLM.
Part 1: WOCAT Symposium – Monday 13 May 2019 (1 day)
Main goal:
To learn
about innovative and proven approaches and initiatives towards up- and
out-scaling SLM and achieving
LDN
and define ways for integrating existing methods and tools and expertise from countries and partners,
to use synergies
and achieve results more effectively. The Symposium is open to
all interested institutions and experts.
Main topics:
1 Dealing with
drivers. How to address hindering
factors and take advantage
of opportunities for upscaling SLM and
achieving LDN?
Present and discuss the factors and drivers that determine whether SLM can be up-
and out-scaled and LDN achieved and
reflect on how they can be identified, analysed and addressed in order to turn them into
opportunities. Consider a wide spectrum of enabling and
hindering conditions and scaling instruments such as
socio-economic aspects,
policy context, economy and value chains, knowledge management,
and
other aspects that are relevant in this regard.
2 Innovative
pathways. How to integrate innovative SLM and LDN pathways into successful up-
and out-scaling initiatives?
Present and discuss concrete examples of tested pathways and approaches, including methods and tools,
their implementation and
impacts, and their ability to foster scaling of
SLM
and achievement of LDN. Discuss and identify ways on how they can be harmonized to
achieve the best
possible results
more
effectively.
3 Community of practice. How can WOCAT, partner organizations and other
institutions
work better together to support the up-
and outscaling of SLM and
achieving LDN?
WOCAT, partner organizations and other institutions will present ongoing and
planned initiatives
in support of scaling SLM and achieving LDN, and
discuss
and identify possible synergies
and strategic partnerships for achieving better results more effectively.
Call
for abstracts
Participants are invited to submit a short abstract (max. 400 words) in English
for
a thematic contribution (plenary or poster presentation). Presentations shall address at least one
of the above listed
main topics, illustrate it through a concrete example and derive conclusions that are
of relevance for the community.
Abstract submission and
deadline
Please submit the abstract through the online registration form. The submission deadline is Friday, 19 April 2019.
Review process for abstracts
The submitted abstracts will go through a review process led by the organizing institutions. The
authors will be notified about
the
acceptance or rejection of
their submissions towards
the end of April
2019.
In addition to the thematic contributions,
there will be a launch of new products so for example ‘Sustainable
rangeland management
in
Sub-Saharan Africa -
Guidelines to good practice’ as well as other new products from the countries and from partners.
Part 2:
Field
day – Tuesday 14 May 2019 (1 day)
A field day
to
showcase successful SLM implementation and achievements and impacts of
applying WOCAT tools and methods in Ethiopia will be organized by
the
Ministry of
Agriculture of
Ethiopia, CIAT and WLRC.
The
field day is open to
all
interested
institutions
and experts. Further details will be announced in due course.
Organizational information
Venue
The WOCAT Symposium and the 19th WOCAT Network Meeting (WNM) will be held at
Nexus Hotel
Gerji Mebrathaile Street
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251-116-670-067
Fax: +251 11 667 0081
Contact persons for the meeting at the venue (coordination & logistics):
Name
|
Telephone
|
Email
|
1.Girma Gebrehawariat
2.Kinfe Bekabil
|
+251920498498 or
+251911212821
+251911193610
|
|
Date
Monday 13 May -
Tuesday 14 May 2019
Arrival
Participants who fly to Ethiopia should
arrive
on Sunday 12 May at Bole international airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (and shuttle service will
be provided by the hotel).
The Bole international airport is located only 5 minutes away from the Nexus Hotel.
Departure
Plan your departure
for
Wednesday
15 May 2019.
Visa requirements
The vast majority of travelers need a visa for Ethiopia to
be able to
enter. Citizens of Kenya
can
enter without a visa for periods of up to a
year
and
citizens of Djibouti can enter for a period of up to three (3) months visa-free. These are
the
only two
visa-exempt nationalities.
The Ethiopia eVisa has effectively eliminated the need to queue
at the border
for
a visa on arrival as the application can be completed in
advance. The eVisa is available to citizens, from every country, whose passports have at least six months remaining from the date of arrival in Ethiopia.
Apply here
for
the Ethiopia
eVisa https://www.evisa.gov.et. After the Ethiopian visa application form has been submitted the information provided
is screened by the Ethiopian
authorities. The vast majority of applications will be
approved within 24 hours. In rare cases, the Ethiopia
visa application process can take up to
72 hours to
process. To minimize the chances of delays, applicants should ensure that all
the
information is entered accurately
and that no sections are left incomplete.
Language of event
The language
of the event will be English.
Spanish-English translation will
be provided.
Organiser / Host
The WOCAT Symposium and the field day will be hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture
of Ethiopia
and jointly organized by the Ministry of
Agriculture of Ethiopia, CIAT, WLRC and the
WOCAT Secretariat.
Participants
We invite WOCAT members and a broad range of stakeholders working in the field of SLM
and
LDN at the local, national, and international level. Participation will be on self-funded basis. We hope to welcome many of you.
Cost
We will
charge a registration fee to be paid in USD and in cash at
the venue at the beginning
of the meeting. The registration cost DOES NOT include
accommodation costs.
Registration cost is as follows:
USD 60 (covering meals including dinner and lunch at Nexus hotel, starting from Sunday evening 12 May until Tuesday evening 14 May)
Accommodation
All participants will
be accommodated either
at
Nexus hotel or in a nearby
hotel connected to
the venue by shuttle service. Accommodation cost at Nexus Hotel will be USD 80 per single standard room / night (breakfast included). Other recommended nearby hotels at lower cost
Any payments at the airport, be it for meals and lodging, will need to be in Ethiopian Birr, USD
cash, approved USD personal
checks and USD traveler’s checks as no credit cards are
accepted.
According to
our policy, all participants must have a
health and
accident insurance
during the period of the meeting. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Agriculture
will not assume any legal or financial responsibility related with health
problems or accidents.
Your registration will be
confirmed. Further information such
as about the programme
and accommodation you will receive around end
of April 2019.
We look much forward to your participation. Your participation and input in this meeting is
important for shaping the future of WOCAT and its support to upscale SLM and achieve LDN!
Yours truly,
The meeting organisers
Ministry of Agriculture, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Ethiopia
Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC), Ethiopia
WOCAT Secretariat, Centre
for
Development
and Environment,
University of Berne,
Switzerland
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