Planning Workshop –Sustainable Management of Marginal - Unesco

• It was suggested that training workshops by FET‐Water could be organized cost‐efficiently
back to back to international SUMAMAD workshops.
Linkages with UNESCO Teaching Resource Kit for Dryland Countries
• There was a great interest by team leaders in becoming involved in the diffusion and testing
of the resource kit. This would be linked to ongoing outreach and environmental education
activities. Biosphere projects were regarded as the ideal sites to test the tool kit.
• It was suggested that facilitators, teachers and scientific experts would work together to
initiate practical projects – for example, experimental gardens – and these would over time
be enhanced and refined through the input and interaction with experts.
• It was highlighted that training of trainers could be facilitated through the SUMAMAD case
study sites, if additional funding could be made available.
• The toolkit will need to be updated using, for example, the experience from SUMAMAD case
study sites in testing it. This could be done easily, once an interactive and web‐based version
of the tool kit is available.
In addition, it was emphasized that SUMAMAD could also benefit from training courses and materials
available through the UNU Water Virtual Learning Centers established in various regions worldwide.
2.4 Implementation modalities of SUMAMAD project‐Phase 2
Management structure
During the first phase of the SUMAMAD project the core management group consisted of UNESCO,
UNU‐INWEH, ICARDA as well as the Flemish Government. The project is quite unique in the sense
that the Flemish Government is also involved in technical aspects, besides providing substantial
financial support to the project. The UNESCO and UNU‐INWEH partnership has been very successful
and their complimentary roles and expertise have been very beneficial for the project
implementation. Both organizations have made financial contributions to the project, while ICARDA
has not provided financial input. In addition, ICARDA's dual role in terms of being part of the core
management and leading the case study in Syria has created confusion. Therefore, it was proposed
that ICARDA should not continue to be part of the core management during the second phase.
The following recommendations emerged from subsequent discussions:
• In the overall proposal roles of the different organizations forming the core management
group have to be clarified and distinguished based on their comparative advantage.
• ICARDA will make a proposal to UNESCO and UNU‐INWEH describing their financial and in‐
kind contributions to a next phase of SUMAMAD and what specific role they could be
playing. ICARDA sees its strength in having experience and field sites in the region as well as
strong capacity building expertise. The Syrian site has been already handed over to a Syrian
NARS (National Agricultural Research System).
Roles and responsibilities of partners
It was agreed that national teams will need to nominate one core focal point as well as a deputy
team leader. They will have the overall responsibility of implementing the site‐specific work plans,
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