Stories

The Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is inviting representatives of the Civil Society Organizations accredited to the Conference of the Parties (COP) to apply to become observer to the Science–Policy Interface (SPI).  The elected person will act as alternate of the current CSO observer  to the SPI until the end of 2019 and will become the fully-fledge CSO observer for the biennium 2020 – 2021.  Applications together with the necessary documents should be sent to the secretariat (cso@unccd.int) by 6 April 2018 at 24:00 CET. Related documents: Call for a CSO observer to the UNCCD SPI Application form

The UNCCD 2017-2018 reporting process has been launched. Parties will receive training and hands-on experience on how to use the available reporting tools during regional workshops that will take place in the upcoming months. The information for the Parties to the Convention will include such key aspects as monitoring the land-based indicator. In addition, online tutorials and presentations are available for Parties to familiarize themselves with reporting requirements. You can find them on YouTube by following this link. Read more: 2017-2018 reporting process

23 February 2018 – Bangkok, Thailand – Ministers and senior government representatives from Asia and the Pacific, gathered at the regional consultation of the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62), committed to ensuring greater empowerment of rural women and girls to improve their standards of living, food security and livelihoods.  The meeting on achieving gender equality recognized that rural women and girls continue to face structural barriers that impact their human rights and prevent them from reaching their full potential. Achieving adequate living standards, women’s economic empowerment, land rights, food security, health care, quality education, resilience and preparedness to deal with disasters and conflicts are among the main challenges faced by rural women and girls in Asia and the Pacific.   The meeting has adopted a set of recommendations that will feed into CSW62 – the leading intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women worldwide – to be held at the UN Headquarters in New York from 12 to 23 March 2018. The recommendations reflect the urgent need to strengthen normative and legal frameworks, ensuring coordinated action for the social and economic empowerment and meaningful participation of rural women and girls in society. Delegates further highlighted the importance of establishing innovative financing models and enhancing access to ICT and other technologies. They also stressed the need for improved availability of data and gender statistics to enhance evidence-based policy making. The meeting was organized by UNESCAP, the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific and other members of the Asia-Pacific UN Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (TWG-GEEW). For more information, visit www.unescap.org  

23 February 2018 – Bangkok, Thailand – Remarkable progress has been made in broadening electricity access globally, however sustained political will and increased public and private finance are urgently needed to provide affordable and clean energy by 2030 to the 1.2 billion people who do not have access to electricity, The Global SDG7 Conference concluded. Recognizing the importance of energy for development, The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) includes targets for access, renewables and energy efficiency. In her opening statement, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Dr. Shamshad Akhtar underlined that while great progress has been made in improving energy access access, continued commitment is needed as Asia-Pacific remains the most energy intensive region in the world.  Mr. Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, stressed that achieving SDG7 on energy can unlock vast potential for economic growth in all regions and for all people, while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The Global SDG7 Conference was co-organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the Ministry of Energy, The outcomes of the conference provide input for the the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development scheduled for July 2018 in New York.  

Bonn, 20/02/2018 - Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forests and Climate Change of India, says India will achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030. At a meeting with Executive Secretary Monique Barbut held last week in Delhi, India, Dr. Vardhan also conveyed New Delhi’s willingness to co-host the Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop for Capacity-building. The meeting took place in the margins of the World Sustainable Development Summit, which was held on 15 to 17 February in Delhi. UNCCD and The Energy Research Institute (TERI) of India co-hosted a ministerial session on implementation of land degradation neutrality and three thematic sessions on The Governance challenges and policy solutions for combatting land degradation, The Business of Land and on Civil Society Engagement in Land Degradation Neutrality. Nitin Desai, former Under-Secretary of the United Nations, summarized the outcomes of the Ministerial session. The pressures on land come from many sources – agriculture, mining and climate. The solutions must be connected – land, water and biodiversity. If we want the small farmer to think long term, we need to take care of the short term challenge of livelihoods. Participants at the thematic issues discussed: (1) the important role of land management as an accelerator for Sustainable Development Goals and climate action; (2) how CSOs can and are contributing to the local and global land agenda, including in the critical roles of land tenure, gender equity and policy incentives for sustainable land management; and (3) the private sector as a critical partner in scaling up actions on the ground and shifting production practices. Their concerns centered on a few issues: •    how to operationalize sustainable land management (SLM) incentives that deliver multiple benefits •    how national policy frameworks can encourage and support action at the local level; and •    how land use planning can be used to negotiate the competing demands for land resources from industrial agriculture, urban and infrastructure expansion, and extractive and energy concerns, including water intensive industries. Participants observed that civil society organizations are highly effective in achieving change at small scale. But scaling up these successes would require information sharing, public campaigns and peer to peer learning facilitated by both the public and private sectors. They noted that even when gender equity and tenure security are guaranteed on paper they are rarely achieved due to multiple barriers, such as bureaucracy and political and cultural beliefs. Participants observed that land degradation poses significant risks, but also offers opportunities, to multiple industries. However, these calculations are rarely taken into account in most business decision making. Land is still not viewed as a “core business” but rather as a peripheral standard business calculation or toolkit. They argued that the private sector can – and should – invest in good land management considering that healthy land is always an essential economic, either directly or indirectly. Participants then identified several pathways for possible action. The noted the need for an integrated approach that is based on the principles of rights, rewards and responsibilities. They called for the adoption of sustainable land management (SLM) practices that ensure productivity of land resources as well as food, water and livelihood security for present and future generations. To this end, policies on the governance of land and soils are needed in order to create the enabling environment that will ensure restoration outcomes are sustainable and pro-poor. Participants highlighted that local communities and CSOs are key drivers in the innovation, experimentation and adaptation needed in the search for new pathways and solutions. Through partnerships, governments, businesses and local communities can mobilize resources and increase efforts to protect and improve rural livelihoods. Such partnerships should seek to overcome the barriers to land rights and to gender equality, which undermine the achievement of land degradation neutrality. Finding new sources of money to finance small scale producers and other livelihood activities of rural communities was also emphasized. Two options could be to work with green value supply chains and with investors committed to corporate social responsibility. Participants also stressed that businesses should not degrade the land. Instead, they need to promote sustainable land management, including through consumer demand, product procurement, and value-added processing. They argued that businesses with enormous land and water footprints should find new ways to shift production patterns. During the Summit, Ms. Barbut also met representatives of 7 leading media houses in India. Mr. Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister inaugurated the Summit. Click here for the WSDS news bulletin. For more reporting on the sessions, click the links below. http://wsds.teriin.org/land-at-risk-india-needs-to-combat-degradation.php http://wsds.teriin.org/towards-sustainable-land-management.php http://wsds.teriin.org/articles.php http://thecommonwealth.org/media/news/blog-world-sustainable-development-summit-delhi For more information on the event, contact salexander@unccd.int. Sasha Alexander, Policy Officer, contributed to this report.

UNCCD Executive Secretary Monique Barbut participated in the meeting with the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi as the World Sustainable Development Summit 2018 (#WSDS2018) opened in New Delhi, India. Bringing together representatives from over 40 countries, many at the ministerial level, #WSDS2018 is a global forum where governments, industry, academia and institutions come together to discuss the challenges of sustainable development and climate change. During the Forum the UNCCD presented on the governance challenges and opportunities for the private sector and civil society to become fully engaged in delivering on India’s commitment to achieving LDN by 2030. You can follow the event here. Photo: TERI