This project in an integrated Multi-country initiative within the Central Asian Countries Initiative for Land Management (CACILM) CPP and is one of four related multi-country support projects under the CACILM Multi-country Framework Project (CMPF) by contributing the system, institutional, and individual capacities needed to respond to country barriers in terms of an inconsistent and divergent policy environment, inadequate and inefficient resources to combat SLM, gaps in human capital to develop SLM programs, and a disconnect between project level successes and policy making. The project builds on the structure created by the CMPF and supports the CACILM CPP effort to catalyze efforts to reverse land degradation processes and improve sustainable livelihoods through a consolidated approach put in place by the five Central Asian Countries and Strategic Partnership Agreement members (UNDP, ADB, GTZ, GM, ICARDA, and FAO) with Global Environment Facility (GEF) support. Building on this framework and consistent with the overall CMPF vision to enhance “the restoration, maintenance, and enhancement of the productive functions of land in Central Asia leading to improved economic and social well-being of those who depend on these resources while preserving the ecological functions of these lands in the spirit of the UNCCD,” the project objective is to increase capacity at the national and cross-country levels to develop and implement an integrated approach and strategies to combat land degradation within operational National Programming Framework.

Delivery in 2010 - $392,000; 2011 - $641,588;