The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) plays a key role in the world’s efforts to eradicate poverty, achieve sustainable development and reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is the only internationally recognized legally binding instrument that addresses the problem of land degradation in dryland rural areas. It enjoys a truly universal membership of 191 parties. And, through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as its funding mechanism, it is able to channel much-needed resources to projects aimed at combating the problem, particularly in Africa.

For the past ten years, the UNCCD has been both an indispensable forum and instrument put at the disposal of the international community to address the increasing loss of fertile lands and biomass and the effects of drought.
In addition to its political and formal character, an international convention must also be a means of expression of solidarity between countries and actors at various levels. In this sense, the UNCCD has succeeded from the beginning in appropriately channeling attention towards highlighting the role of local populations and the work of NGOs.

By granting a particular importance to traditional knowledge, the UNCCD has highlighted the pragmatism and ingenuity of
dryland communities who managed for centuries to draw their means of existence from arid and semi-arid ecosystems.

The identification of desertification indicators, the promotion of the establishment of desertification monitoring and evaluation systems and the prevention of famine by means of early warning systems are all activities for which the UNCCD stimulated exchange and the dissemination of vital information in the regions most concerned.