National Reporting Process and PRAIS
UNCCD provides the foundation for its 197 Parties to work together to combat desertification, land degradation and mitigate the effects of drought; maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and improve the living conditions for people in drylands. To achieve this, the Conference of Parties (COP) needs reliable and up-to-date information on measures taken, results achieved and information on challenges faced by the country Parties.
Parties are required under the Convention to communicate, through the UNCCD secretariat, reports on measures undertaken to implement the Convention. The process of national reporting is an indispensable tool to bring forward effective planning and implementation of the Convention and the achievement of the strategic objectives at global and national level. The information communicated by Parties through reporting is valuable also for other stakeholders that work on the implementation of the UNCCD at national and local levels.
National reporting of the Convention has drastically evolved over the past two decades. The Country Parties to UNCCD are obligated to submit their National reports to UNCCD Secretariat periodically. The country parties are required to submit the reports every 4 year interval against the implementation of the Convention. Till date, India has submitted seventh National Reports. India’s eight National Report will be due for submission in 2022.
From 2018 on, the national reporting process monitors progress made in the implementation of the UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework for implementing the Convention. In line with this new strategic framework, national reporting now involves two main types of information: data on the progress towards the five strategic objectives related to the condition of ecosystems and populations, drought, global environmental benefits and the mobilization of financial and non-financial resources to support the implementation of the Convention, and narratives – stories of cases – on actual implementation efforts related to financial and non-financial resources, policy and planning, and actions on the ground.
All country Parties have adopted the Performance Review and Assessment of Information System (PRAIS) – an online reporting portal for submission of the National Report to the UNCCD Secretariat which is indicator based and requires information for measuring, monitoring and evaluation. The online PRAIS portal provides opportunity to upload information in desired formats which are later analyze and generate reports by the system. This provides opportunity for effective review of the implementation of the UNCCD Strategic Framework and the Convention, based on a new methodological approach, which envisages reporting on progress indicators.