Organized jointly by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and the Afar Bureau of Livestock, Agriculture and Natural Resource Development and the GIZ SDR Support Programme, the conference took stock of the most promising approaches in the arid and semi-arid lowlands of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa and created the basis for networking and cooperation. The Main Conference consisted of an Excursion and the two main conference days. It was preceded by a Regional Pre-Conference on the Challenge of Invasive Species – reported on separately.
It hosted a large and diverse number of participants: pastoralists and agro-pastoralists from Afar, Somali Region and Oromyia, decision makers, international development partners, governmental implementers, civil society experts, researchers, and others. All-in all, 254 participants registered for the main conference and 227 for the pre-conference. There was a lively and vibrant attendance throughout. A main outcome of the conference was the Declaration – signed by main organizations and signed by main government organizations and development partners and endorsed by all participants in the conference.
The Action Plans as in this document complement the Declaration on the Development of Resilience Enhancing Measures in Ethiopian Lowlands.
After the conference work was undertaken on these Action Plans in the run up to the Second Conference, the DREAM II, planned to take place in early 2021 in Jijiga. The theme for the Second Conference will be the joint programming of activities for the arid and semi-arid lowlands. The Third Conference, to be organised later in 2021 will discuss the upscaling of programmes for the lowlands.
The Declaration, Programme of Action and the Proceedings are available in the Resource Section below.
