What is FIELD?
The Financial Information Engine on Land Degradation – FIELD – is a dynamic knowledge management system managed by the Global Mechanism for searching, sharing and harnessing information related to resource mobilization for the implementation of national and international action programmes to combat desertification. Through this Internet portal, FIELD is made publicly available to all interested individuals and organizations. FIELD offers functionality that exists in Internet portals, such as Google™ and Yahoo!®, plus additional features typical of document management systems. Specifically, FIELD provides a full set of web-based tools supporting the administration, organization, indexing, cross-referencing, uploading and retrieval of relevant information in a decentralized and participatory manner. Unlike conventional and broad-based search engines, FIELD is a topical or “vertical” search engine specialized to address the particular information needs of specific audiences interested in the work of the Global Mechanism and of the wider international community involved in combating desertification.

What is the Global Mechanism (GM)?
The Global Mechanism (GM) was established by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as an instrument to promote the mobilization of substantial resources to combat land degradation and poverty in affected developing countries worldwide. To this effect, the GM acts as a hub for a dynamic network of partners, committed to focusing their energies, resources and knowledge on combating desertification. The GM not only mobilises partners, knowledge and financial resources, but also plays the role of a specialised provider of financial advisory services. In a context of changing frame conditions for development cooperation and official aid allocation, in which the UNCCD operates, the GM informs the international policy debate on trends and developments with regard to the changing international financial architecture and the challenges and opportunities it creates for UNCCD implementation. Read more on the Global Mechanism’s website.

What are FIELD’s objectives?
The GM believes that better use of better statistics and knowledge leads to better policies and better development outcomes. In line with this principle, and in conformity with its institutional mandate, the GM developed FIELD to generate and disseminate knowledge of specific value to the UNCCD policymaking and resource mobilization processes. Through this knowledge management function, FIELD specifically intends to (i) promote a more effective use of existing resources for the implementation of the UNCCD, (ii) increase the visibility of organizations involved in UNCCD financing and implementation, including activities and investment flows, and (iii) facilitate the identification of opportunities for financing sustainable land management initiatives, including those arising from domestic and foreign direct investments, market and trade-related issues, carbon finance, renewable energy finance, compensation for ecosystem services, private philanthropy, etc.

Why using FIELD?
FIELD is intended as a knowledge hub to inform relevant policy processes at national and international level and facilitate overall coordination in UNCCD implementation. It facilitates the identification of drivers, incentive mechanisms, and strategies for mainstreaming sustainable land management strategies into relevant policies, programs, and investment frameworks. It can for example be used to download UNCCD-related programme documents, project summaries, development co-operation policies and national financing strategies. It can also be used to perform financial analyses aimed at monitoring investment trends, detecting funding gaps and opportunities, and promoting stakeholders’ engagement. In particular, FIELD can be used to assess the financial risks, opportunities, costs, results and returns of investments in sustainable land management and other activities of relevance to UNCCD implementation. It may enable financial institutions to target resources to support innovative approaches in combating desertification and applying interdisciplinary technical solutions and institutional arrangements aiming at sustainable results. Between 2003 and 2005, access to the FIELD portal increased from an average of 13,000 to 32,000 monthly visits from more than 150 countries worldwide.  

What type of information is accessible through FIELD?
FIELD is designed with the purpose of facilitating one-stop access to public domain information on UNCCD-related financing, which is generally available in a variety of formats and repositories. One of the core elements of FIELD is a comprehensive database of UNCCD-related projects, drought response activities, funding programmes, documents and organizations, including information on donor policies, strategies, priorities, available resources, eligibility criteria, and application modalities. This database contains thousands of records, downloadable documents and useful links covering more than 190 countries and nearly 1000 organizations worldwide. These records or knowledge objects are interlinked and cross-referenced according to a multidimensional classification grid consisting of over 150 topics, including Relevant Activity Codes (RACs), development objectives and destination sectors. The information contained in the FIELD database is used to generate financial reports, statistics, charts, maps, factsheets and analytical reviews.

What is the meaning of the terminology used in FIELD?
The information contained in FIELD may refer to the following terminology, specific either to GM’s content management system or to the official text of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD):

Affected developing country Parties are countries eligible for international assistance in the implementation of the Convention according to Article 4, para 3, UNCCD. In particular, they: (i) have ratified or acceded to the UNCCD; (ii) include, in whole or in part, arid, semi-arid and/or dry sub-humid areas (in which the ratio of annual precipitation to potential evapotranspiration (Aridity Index) falls within the range from 0.05 to 0.65) affected or threatened by desertification (UNCCD, Article 1); and (iii) are considered "developing countries" according to the OECD classification.

• Map - Mean Annual Precipitation 1951-1980

• Map - Mean Annual Potential Evapotranspiration 1951-1980

Desertification means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.

Drought means the naturally occurring phenomenon that exists when precipitation has been significantly below normal recorded levels, causing serious hydrological imbalances that adversely affect land resource production systems (UNCCD, Article 1).

Indexing and cross-referencing: Indexing allows the thematic organization of knowledge objects by keywords, which may be defined according to a system categorization schema. Cross-referencing allows the definition of one or more relationships between knowledge objects or between knowledge objects and topics. These features effectively contribute to enhancing the visibility of relevant information and therefore improving its accessibility to different audiences or users.

Knowledge objects: Knowledge objects are containers of information. A knowledge object can be a document, a database, a web-site or web-page, a photo gallery, a set of maps, etc. FIELD provides a summary description of knowledge objects of relevance to UNCCD financing, and pointers to the original source of information, if available. Knowledge objects are stored in under different inventories and organized in different subjects.

• FIELD’s data schema: summary chart.

Land degradation, according to Article 1, UNCCD, means reduction or loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns, such as: soil erosion caused by wind and/or water; deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil; and long-term loss of natural vegetation.

• Map - Soil Degradation

Sustainable land management consists of activities, measures, programme or integrated strategies, which specifically tackle the issues of desertification, particularly their causes or effects, and are intended to provide direct or indirect remedies. The GM has drawn up a list of Relevant Activity Codes (RACs) grouped under four main headings: Monitoring and Research, Planning and Mitigation, Risk Management, and Emergency Response (see FIELD Classification Matrix).

Topics: Topics are thematic nodes in the navigation trees aimed to reflect the different standpoints through which different audiences or users may access the underlying information. The management of the topics is fully web-based and can be either centralized, through a single webmaster editor/moderator, or decentralized to one or more editors/moderators that may independently define and manage a whole tree or portions of it.

Where is this information located in the FIELD portal?
The main gateway to the FIELD database is a section called Inventories, which is easily accessible from the top navigation bar. In this section, a simple and intuitive navigation process guides the reader through the selection of available subjects (e.g. projects approved before 2001), topics (e.g. water conservation), and items (e.g. project titles). Alternatively, subjects can be selected directly on the Main Page, using a Guided Search tool that leads to the summary description of each knowledge object in just three steps. Simple, advanced and geographic search engines are also available to facilitate the identification of target information and the preparation of database reports based on selected keywords, countries, regions, organizations, topics and other criteria (click Help for more details). Aggregated statistics, interactive mapping systems, charting options and other analytical tools are available in a section called Dashboard, also accessible from the top navigation bar. In a snapshot, this section provides an overview of the main patterns and trends derived from the information contained in the database.

How accurate and updated is the FIELD database?
FIELD is regularly updated by the GM with authoritative information collected “at the source” in close collaboration with the data owners. The main sources of information are the official reports submitted by governments and organizations to the Conference of Parties (COP) and to the Committee for the Review of Implementation of the Convention (CRIC), as well as Official Development Assistance (ODA) data extracted from the OECD Creditor Reporting System. In addition, GM uses other carefully screened and verified sources, such as institutional websites, project databases, portfolio reviews, annual reports, and other relevant publications. Most of the items contained in the FIELD database therefore refer to authoritative publications or other sources of information published on the Internet. This does not imply endorsement by the GM of the contents of these sources.

How to display the most recent updates?
Recently posted items are flagged with a “New” icon placed near their title in the list of search results, which are generated from any simple or advanced search on the FIELD database. Moreover, shortcuts and links to particularly relevant updates, recent news, and highly visited sections of the database are listed in a section called Highlights, accessible from the top navigation bar. In addition to facilitating rapid access to important items in the FIELD database and external resources, the Highlights section contains a dedicated search function that allows browsing the news archives by a combination of keywords, dates, themes, countries and organizations.

What is new in this release?
Since December 2000, when the first online edition of FIELD was launched, the GM published several upgraded releases. The one that is currently online is release 4.1. Apart from a thoroughly updated database and a completely restyled graphical layout, this edition features brand new sections, such as Dashboard and Contribute, as well as improved navigation and search functionalities, such as Advanced Search, Geographic Search, and Guided Search. The enhanced FIELD search engines allow readers querying the database and building reports using simple or complex combinations of keywords, topics and other filters and search criteria. To further facilitate accessibility, the vast amount of information available in the database has been grouped under a few main subjects, which can be displayed from the Main Page or from a dedicated section called Inventories accessible from the top navigation bar.

What is under construction?
It is a current GM priority to further promote the use of FIELD as an effective communication instrument to inform the international policy debate and sensitize target audiences with accurate and reliable information on funding sources, financial needs and investment flows related to the implementation of the Convention. To this effect, the GM is intensifying its communication efforts to facilitate mainstreaming, partnership building, and the transfer of knowledge on financial opportunities to affected developing country Parties. Furthermore, new analytical modules are being designed to equip FIELD users with instruments and methodologies that help monitoring the resources mobilized for the implementation of the Convention and assess the costs and benefits of sustainable land management investments. In this connection, the GM is collaborating closely with country Parties, UNCCD Secretariat, Facilitation Committee members and OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in the analysis of investment trends and project portfolios, as well as in the improvement, standardization and harmonization of national reporting.