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   Under the theme “Her Land. Her Rights,” the focus of this year’s Desertification and Drought Day, marked worldwide on 17 June, is on women’s land rights as a key element of achieving the connected global goals of gender equality and land degradation neutrality by 2030. While land is the most critical economic resource for most rural poor, women around the world are less likely to own or control land than men, which exposes them to poverty, hunger, gender-based violence and displacement.   “Women are major actors in the global efforts to reduce and reverse land degradation. They restore land, they protect land, they cherish, nourish and care for the land, while also caring for others. However, in the vast majority of countries, women have unequal and limited access to and control over land. We cannot achieve land degradation neutrality without gender equality, and we cannot exclude half the population from land management decisions because of their gender." – Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary  Investing in women’s equal access to land and associated assets is a direct investment in their future and the future of humanity. UNCCD will reaffirm its commitment to gender equality with these Desertification and Drought Day 2023 objectives:   Raise awareness of the disproportionate impact of desertification, land degradation and drought on women and girls and the barriers they face in decision-making on land issues Highlight women's contributions to sustainable land management and broader SDGs Mobilize global support to advance land rights for women and girls around the world “Solving gender inequalities is not just the right thing to do. If we ensure that women are fully able to use their abilities, knowledge, talents, and leadership potential, our societies are simply better off.” – Former President of Finland, Tarja Halonen UNCCD Land Ambassador  This year’s global observance of Desertification and Drought Day will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, with events taking place in all parts of the world.   Together with UN partners, civil society activists and influencers, we are launching the campaign #HerLand to recognize excellence and leadership in sustainable land management by women and girls; amplify the voices of women and girls living on the frontlines of desertification, land degradation and drought and call to action for stronger women’s leadership and decision-making power to advocate for issues affecting women in the context of desertification, land degradation and drought.  You too can lend your support by reaching out to your communities and advocating the key role of gender equality in empowering women and girls to be at the forefront of global land restoration and drought resilience efforts. We invite you to discover more and join: https://www.unccd.int/land-and-life/gender/herland

On the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York,  the UNCCD took part in a high-level event at the opening night of Goals House held at the iconic Tavern on the Green in Central Park on 18 September 2022.   The roundtable discussion titled "The Metaverse: A Technological Revolution for People and Planet", showcased key challenges and opportunities of Web3, which could open new frontiers to spark progress and how this technology could be harnessed for the SDGs. The panelists included Ms. Inna Modja, CEO of Code Green and UNCCD Land Ambassador, Ms. Marina Ponti, Executive Director of the UN's SDG Action Campaign, Ms. Shannon Campaign, the COO of World of Women, and Ms. Andrea Meza Murillo, UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary. The event closed with a moving musical performance of Ms. Modja. The Web3 — a term for a reimagined Internet powered by decentralized technologies — transforms how we interact online and offers access to the Metaverse. This collective virtual space enhances the physical and digital reality and provides a rich array of experiences for gaming, social media, education and art. It also shows different pathways that could be a force for good and lead to inspiring action on desertification and climate change. UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Andrea Meza Murillo emphasized that the "Metaverse paves new pathways for visions of the future on what each of us can do to restore the land. By working together and changing our hearts and minds, we make the most of all opportunities to raise awareness of the importance of tackling urgent and interlinked challenges such as land degradation and drought, nature loss and climate change." Earlier this year, UNCCD unveiled Droughtland, a fictional drought-stricken nation, to spark a global conversation on the urgent issue of drought. The campaign features what life in Droughtland might feel like, highlighting the central message that no nation or community has to face such a crisis. While using the new social media filter on Instagram and #NoDroughtland hashtag, the campaign invites the audience to become citizens of Droughtland, having a first-hand experience on how drought impacts different dimensions of life and calling for solidarity to boost drought resilience. Earlier in the day, Droughtland campaign was present in Central Park to raise awareness and encourage New Yorkers and city visitors to join the campaign's call to action.

The UNCCD Land Anthem “Born from the Land’, performed by the Land Ambassador Ricky Kej, became an emotional curtain-raiser for the high-level thematic debate "Moment for Nature" that took place on 19 July 2022 in the General Assembly Hall of the UN Headquarters in New York. The debate focused on ways to achieve the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree target and ensure humanity's future by promoting greater coordination of the global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect biodiversity on land and sea, restore life to degraded land and soils, combat pollution and enable circular economies. Somewhere along our journey as humans, we have forgotten that we are not the only species, we need to live in absolute peace and absolute harmony with every single entity of nature, co-existing with the land we walk on and the air we breathe" –  Ricky Kej The two-time Grammy Award winner and a long-standing UNCCD Land Ambassador, Ricky Kej embodies and inspires positive change through the emotional language of art and music. The UNCCD Land Anthem that he created together with another Land Ambassador Baaba Maal and other musicians from Canada, India, the USA, Senegal, South Africa and Vietnam has already been produced in eight languages. The song that celebrates Life on Land has been performed at key international events, such as the UNCCD COPs and the Desertification and Drought Day global observances. You can download the lyrics in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian, and watch the original release on our YouTube channel.

Young people working with the UNCCD are playing leading roles at the World Youth Development Forum

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) welcomes the pledge of 5.25 billion United States dollars announced today for the eighth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF8). The increase in GEF resources comes at a critical moment as many countries around the world are facing multiple challenges – from drought to conflicts, to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all of which could turn policy attention away from sustainable growth and development approaches. Developing and the least developed countries, in particular, will benefit from the increased allocation by supplementing stretched national budgets to achieve the desired post-COVID-19 recovery. The announcement also comes a month before the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to UNCCD, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where governments will decide on the priority actions to take in 2022 and 2023. “Land is where life thrives. We applaud countries’ leadership and commitment to successfully replenish the GEF for next 4 years from July 2022. Today's announcement will ramp up efforts to combat land degradation that would have a positive impact on the restoration of ecosystems,” said UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw. The restoration by 2030 of the one billion hectares of land pledged would have vast economic, social and environmental benefits worldwide. Biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable land management, recovery of ground water sources. In turn, these benefits could improve food security for communities and consumers worldwide. The Global Mechanism of the UNCCD regularly receives requests from countries for support to develop large-scale projects that can transform livelihoods and landscapes. It continues to provide technical assistance to stakeholders in developing project ideas that are eligible for GEF funding. The increased GEF8 allocation for the land focal area may encourage countries with worsening land degradation to take concrete action. About 130 of the 169 UNCCD country parties affected by desertification have shown great interest in restoring degrading land and pursuing sustainable land management. Since its establishment in 1992, GEF has played a catalytic role in land restoration and rehabilitation activities. The GEF became a financial mechanism of the UNCCD in 2010. GEF funding has helped countries to create the enabling environment needed to motivate other partners, including the private sector, to invest in large-scale restoration.

UNCCD extends heartfelt congratulations to its Land Ambassador, music composer Ricky Kej, who has just received a Grammy Award in the Best New Age Album category for his album "Divine Tides," along with Stewart Copeland. This is the second Grammy win for Ricky, who is a passionate advocate for sustainable development and environment action. In his acceptance speech he shared his dream of the world as one family that is living in peace – within the human species and all entities on this planet: the wildlife, the forests, all the elements of nature – the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we walk on. Ricky himself teaches respect for nature by example, choosing a vegetarian diet, opting to use public transportation instead of owning a car and having his carbon footprint audited quarterly to monitor his environmental footprint and stay on top of his climate goals.  Together with his fellow Ambassador Baaba Maal, Ricky is also the author of the UNCCD Land Anthem, which has been produced in six languages.