At its tenth session held in Changwon, Republic of Korea in 2011, the COP decided to establish an ad hoc Advisory Group of Technical Experts (AGTE) to continue the iterative, participatory and scientific effort of impact indicator refinement and to address practical and scientific challanges to monitoring and assessment of impact of the Convention.
At its meeting on 29-30 May 2012 in Bonn, the CST Bureau finalized the selection of the 
members of the AGTE. The AGTE consists of 15 members, comprising two experts per each regional group and five ‘global experts’ selected among representatives of major synergistic efforts, and relevant international conventions, organizations and institutions.
The first meeting of the AGTE was held from 23-24 July 2012 in Bonn, Germany. The second meeting of the AGTE took place on 21-22 January 2013 in Bonn, Germany.
The preliminary recommendations of the AGTE have been released at the beginning of April 2013 and submitted to all National Focal Points and Science and Technology Correspondents for comments.
The AGTE preliminary recommendations address a number of issues important to monitoring progress made in achieving the strategic objectives of the Convention and reporting on its impacts. Besides including a proposal for a refined set of meaningful, globally applicable and cost-effective impact indicators, the recommendations deal with the need for a more science based and operational definition of affected areas, the need for the UNCCD impact monitoring to include nationally and locally relevant information/indicators, and the challenges related to integrating, analysing and interpreting impact indicator information.