Dryland Science for Development (DSD) Consortium

Dryland Science for Development (DSD) is a consortium of five research organizations with deep and complementary experience on issues of sustainable land management and combating land degradation. The five organizations (in alphabetical order) are: European DesertNet, the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the European Commission Joint Research Centre - Institute for Environment and Sustainability (JRC-IES), and UNU-INWEH.

Responding to an Open Call by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the DSD was selected to assist the UNCCD and particularly its Committee on Science and Technology (CST) in organizing a Scientific Conference on "Bio-physical and socio-economic monitoring and assessment of desertification and land degradation, to support decision-making in land and water management" that will take place as part of the UNCCD's formal Conference of Parties (COP) from 21 September - 2 October 2009.

Jointly, these core DSD partners bring global scientific experience and expertise, global science partnerships, a long history of close engagement in the CCD process, and strong experience and skills in the organization of scientific conferences.

Following the terms of reference to that Call, the members of DSD, including UNU-INWEH, were instrumental in organising the scientific architecture of the conference through the development of 3 Working Groups, each tasked with developing a White Paper on a different facet of the conference topic.

The DSD members, including UNU-INWEH, were responsible for looking for funds to support an open and transparent process for broad global representation of the global scientific community from all regions in the Working Groups. Furthermore, the draft White Papers were available online for Open Consultation between May - October 2009.

UNU-INWEH together with EuropeanDesertNet were co-leaders of Working Group 3 on "Monitoring and Assessment of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought: Knowledge Management, Institutions and Economics". Working Group 3 was generously supported by GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit - German Technical Cooperation).

For further details on the DSD Working Groups, please click here.

DSD News and Updates

Outcomes of the 1st UNCCD Scientific Conference

22-24 September 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The 1st UNCCD Scientific Conference was successfully held from 22-24 September 2009, during the CST session at the UNCCD COP-9 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a member of the DSD Consortium, UNU-INWEH played a key role in organizing the Scientific Conference, particularly the Working Group 3 session with WG3 co-leader European DesertNet.

For more information about the Scientific Conference and its outcomes, click here.

Global Online Consultation of the Working Group White Papers

Closed (Deadline: 31 October 2009)

The three White Papers of the DSD Working Groups are now closed for comments. To download the draft White Papers, please click here.

Synthesis and Recommendations of the DSD

Click here to download

Following the conclusions of the 1st UNCCD Scientific Conference on 24 September 2009 during the COP-9 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the DSD proposed a final document with its key findings and recommendations. This document fed into the final decision process at the COP-9 (see Outcomes on Scientific Conference).

For further information on the DSD, please visit www.drylandscience.org.

Last updated: 11 November 2009