After the completion of the UNCCD workshop organized by DCG Sudan for parliamentarians and other stakeholders, the DCG coordinator and the president of the Committee of Agriculture and Animal Affairs (CAAA) of the National Assembly (NA) worked closely together to ensure proper finalization of Sudan’s National Action Program (NAP) on desertification.

This work included the following:

• The NAP was revised with editors and included the results and recommendations of the UNCCD parliamentarians and other stakeholders from the workshop.
• The NAP was translated into Arabic to fit with the general policy of the country.
• A copy of the English and Arabic versions of NAP was submitted to: The Ministry of Justice, Council of Ministries, and the Ministry of Agriculture for endorsement.
• The Minister of Agriculture and Forests considered the results and recommendations of the UNCCD workshop as an endorsement of the NAP by the stakeholders, and officially shared this information with the Council of Ministries.
• The Ministry of Justice officially advised the Council of Ministries to endorse the NAP as it needs no more legislation since the Government of Sudan ratified the UNCCD Convention since 1995.
• The Council of Ministries endorsed the NAP in March 2006.
• The NAP has then been submitted to the National Assembly/Parliament of Sudan for final endorsement. 

During and after the UNCCD workshop, the media (newspapers, radio and TV) performed good coverage of the extent of desertification in Sudan, its impacts and the way forward for a solution. Finally, parliamentarians started lobbying at their State level to include budgets for anti-desertification activities within fiscal budgets and to start establishing a National Desertification Fund (NDF).

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