The CRIC 9 Plenary opened on Wednesday, 23 February, with an address by Kossivi Ayikoe, Minister of Environment and Forests, Republic of Togo. Recalling that the UN General Assembly will convene a high-level event in September 2011 on desertification, he said environmental and sustainable objectives cannot be met without actions to combat desertification and land degradation. He reiterated Africa’s commitment to PRAIS and to follow-up on results emerging from it. He welcomed efforts to support sustainable land management (SLM) under GEF-5 and called for financing and a partnership platform for Africa.

In the morning plenary, delegates discussed: alignment of regional and sub-regional action programmes with the Strategy; joint progress reports of the Secretariat and the Global Mechanism, and implementation of activities relating to the Global Mechanism’s mandate; and draft template and reporting guidelines for civil society organizations for the 2012-2013 reporting cycle. Contact Group 1 Chair Moghaddasi reported on the progress of work done by the group on assessment of implementation and review of financial flows.

In the afternoon, an open open dialogue with CSOs convened in plenary. Five CSO representatives showcased their experiences with SLM projects in Moldova, India and the Caribbean and CSO reporting in the framework of PRAIS in francophone African countries and in France. Presentations were followed by a discussion.

Meetings of the two contact groups, as well as meetings for the national focal points within their Regional Implementation Annexes, of regional groups and a number of side events were scheduled throughout the day.