Sustainable mountain development in East Africa in a changing climate

Increased investment in mountain development and conservation, and an end to the consistent marginalization of the mountain ecosystems and communities Levels of investment in the remote mountainous areas of East Africa remain low; preference tends to be given to more accessible lowland areas. In adherence to the principle of social equity and given the potential for resource development in mountain areas, there is need to reverse this trend and bring an end to the neglect and marginalization of mountain areas and communities. This calls for increased investment in mountain development and conservation, including the mobilization of resources for mountain-specific programmes. In order to clearly determine how much mountain areas have benefited from overall national investment, disaggregation of country level investment from public private partnerships and Public Investment Programmes is required, to avoid further marginalization. Proposed interventions relating to investment should firstly seek to promote increased investment in mountain areas through developing an appreciation of the importance, uniqueness and potential of mountain ecosystems, resources and communities; and increased investment in the development and implementation of relevant programmes and projects, through actions that may include: • Assessments to evaluate and determine the potential of mountain ecosystems for conservation and development investments; • Development of mechanisms for lobbying high- level political leaders and policymakers on the importance of mountain issues and the need to designate mountain regions as areas for priority investment; and

The second objective should seek to promote and facilitate the formation or strengthening of institutional arrangements directly addressing sustainable mountain ecosystem development at all levels of governance, including the establishment of coordination centres and the designation of focal points, through actions that may include: • Reviewing existing institutional arrangements and governance mechanisms and identifying weaknesses or gaps requiring action for establishing institutions and/or strengthening their operations to more effectively address sustainable mountain ecosystem development; • Developing frameworks and guidelines for strengthening institutional governance systems including establishing new ones where necessary; • Facilitating and coordinating the development

and strengthening of institutional arrangements both within countries and at the transnational level; and • Establishing and operationalizing a regional framework for monitoring and evaluation of institutional coordination and collaboration on mountain issues. The third objective should seek to integrate both formal and informal systems and norms of governance at subnational, national and transnational levels, through actions such as: • Formulating policy frameworks, guidelines and mechanisms to enable the integration of formal and informal systems and norms; and • Mobilizing resources to operationalize and facilitate policy harmonization and integration processes.

Kikuyu couple, Thomson Falls, Kenya

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