Sustainable Land Management Mainstreaming Tool
The objective of the Sustainable Land Management Mainstreaming Tool (DS-SLM) is to provide elements for the design of operational strategies and action plans for mainstreaming and scaling up SLM to guide national teams and other SLM-related projects in establishing processes for mainstreaming information on desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) and SLM into the national and subnational decision-making processes.
DS-SLM is a decision support framework made up of seven modules that provides the scientific basis for mainstreaming strategies. Module 1 of the framework involves the design of an operational strategy and action plan for mainstreaming and scaling up SLM. This strategy and action plan supports the process of using local and national assessments of DLDD and SLM best practices (modules 2, 3 and 4) in decision making. Module 5 is aimed at integrating SLM into land use planning, and the aim of module 6 is to facilitate the implementation and scaling up of SLM. Module 7 sets out knowledge-management actions to support the other modules.
For SLM to become an active and permanent process, political, institutional, social and financial support is needed for implementing SLM. This requires a conducive policy, institutional and political environment; otherwise, SLM interventions will remain isolated or implemented through projects that last for only limited periods and are usually geographically restricted to pilot areas.
The DS-SLM process for mainstreaming strategies has two main phases: first an initial rapid assessment of the main barriers to SLM implementation and of the existing decision-making processes is carried out and is followed by the formulation of the strategy. The latter is achieved by first formulating the mainstreaming objectives followed by the identification of major stakeholders and institutions to come to the formulation of an action plan. Although the steps follow a natural progression, elements may overlap or occur out of sequence.
The DS-SLM mainstreaming tool has been designed as a simple step-by-step process to be used by the DS-SLM project team. The tool has two sections: 1. A guiding document, which includes a mainstreaming questionnaire for the initial phase of strategy design (mainstreaming assessment); and 2. a file with five mainstreaming tables in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel for organizing and systematizing the information gained in each of the steps in the design of DS-SLM mainstreaming strategies. Each step is discussed in detail in the document.
The DS-SLM tool has been tested in 15 countries.