Qatar will handle the operational budget of newly formed Global Dryland Alliance (GDA) for two years, and the cost of hosting the headquarters in Doha, said Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday. The Prime Minister was inaugurating GDA’s Founding Conference at Sheraton Doha Hotel.
He said food security is a priority in countries’ policies and the programme of regional and international organisations related to development. He called on the international community including countries and organisations to support this alliance and contribute to its trust fund to ensure its continuity and guarantee its capability to provide benefit to all. Qatar is convinced by the urgent importance to establish a successful alliance, he added.
The conference, held under the patronage of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, was attended by a number of ministers, representatives of member states, experts, specialists, heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Qatar and guests of the country.
The Prime Minister said Qatar gives utmost importance to achieve environmental protection, diversify food resources as a strategic choice within the Qatar National Vision 2030 and its overall national strategy. He said: “We are well aware that treating desertification, land deterioration and drought far exceeds the capacity of many states who suffers from these problems, hence the global community must provide all the support to these states regarding this matter.”
He said the initiative of establishment of GDA has come in line with H H the Emir’s speech at the 68th UN General Assembly in September 2014, regarding this alliance.
He said H H the Emir, in cooperation and coordination with states and global organisations, had called this alliance to specialise in guaranteeing food security to benefit more than three billion people living on drylands and spread throughout 50 nations around the world.
He added that H H the Emir had confirmed that GDA will not be a substitute for already established global organisations nor a competitor, however it will complement their efforts to achieve food security. Establishing GDA and adding it to the UN organisations, distills the principles of the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and supports most of its 17 developmental goals especially eradicating poverty, hunger, ensuring good health, well-being, providing water and clean energy at affordable prices, and combating the negative effects of climate change.
He added that out of 17 goals for sustainable development listed by the United Nations in 2015, at least 10 of them are related to food security, the world is looking to achieve in 2030.
Despite the increasing global awareness amongst other things also listed in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the goals of sustainable development, there are still hundreds of millions suffering due to the lack of food security and deficit in the face of natural disasters, he said.
He said experts expect an increase in the pace of natural disasters which in turn lead to drought, desertification and a decline in the quality and availability of water in arid zones, in addition to continuous decline in the quality of agriculture land which leads to a drop in food production.
He confirmed the importance of looking into the treatment of deteriorated land, drought and desertification as they are matters of high priority to face many global obstacles.
He said the situation is becoming more complicated for more than 50 dryland nations listed by the UN, with third of the world population living in them under poor water resource conditions, deterioration of arable areas, spread of poverty and famine all leading to political and social instability, migration, homelessness and loss of hope in homelands and forces poor countries to depend on humanitarian aids. He said all these obstacles impose search into sustainable and joint solution to guarantee to all, at all times, to obtain adequate and essential food for a normal healthy life.
Following the opening, the Prime Minister witnessed the signing ceremony of the founding treaty of the GDA by the participating delegation heads.
The treaty signing is a recognition by the member states that the dryland nations are exposed to serious risks due to global climate change, population growth and economic and social disruptions.
