Other meetings & events

Following the successful Pre-Summit in Rome, Italy, the UN Food Systems Summit will take place on September 23, 2021 during the UN General Assembly in New York. The Summit aimed at raising global awareness and land global commitments and actions that transform food systems to resolve not only hunger, but to reduce diet-related disease and heal the planet. The Secretary-General is calling for collective action of all citizens to radically change the way we produce, process, and consume food.

10 evenings, 3 locations, 70 musicians from 20 countries – Over the Border Festival is back in full swing for the fifth time! While the pandemic forced the festival organizers, the participants and their fans to face many challenges over the past year and a half, they are determined to bring the music back into our lives. This edition of the Festival is taking place in a hybrid format, following the necessary precautions to protect the participants and the audience. The UNCCD secretariat has been supporting the Festival since its creation back in 2016. It has been a very rich collaboration that allowed to build bridges, listen to the voices from the field and to give voice to those affected by desertification, land degradation and drought. The spirit of the Festival is extremely important to the objectives of the Convention and we are delighted to be a part of it, said UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw. More about the event...  

UNCCD and FAO are co-organizing the first webinar on responsible governance of land tenure as a vehicle to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), combat drought and desertification. The event is part of the Resilient Food Systems Programme (RFS) that encompasses a series of four webinars and discussion forums with 17 Sub-Saharan African countries. Speakers from both organizations as well as the African Land Policy Centre, the Committee to Combat Drought in the Sahel, the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning in Kenya, and the Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute will discuss the importance of land tenure to address desertification, land degradation and drought in the Sub–Saharan Africa region. Several case studies from the region will be shared to facilitate the debate. Participants will include UNCCD national focal points, civil society representatives, project managers and technical advisors from FAO, RFS and the EU Land governance programs. Responsible governance of land is a fundamental component of sustainable land management, important to addressing desertification, land degradation and drought, as acknowledged by the UNCCD Parties at COP14, which adopted a landmark decision on land tenure. Today, the UNCCD is the only multilateral environmental agreement explicitly addressing the issue of land tenure. Following COP14, the UNCCD secretariat together with FAO are developing a technical guide on integrating the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of land, fisheries, and forests in the context of national food security into implementing LDN while achieving multiple co-benefits: food security, secure livelihoods and land-based jobs. Building on the lessons from the RFS EU Land Governance Programme in Africa, the webinar series will support an increased understanding of the land degradation – land tenure nexus and provide feedback for the draft technical guide. For more information, contact Ms. Aurelie Bres, Land and water officer, FAO (Aurelie.Bres@fao.org), or Yasmeen Telwala, Governance of tenure and land degradation, Consultant, FAO (Yasmeen.Telwala@fao.org) and Enni Kallio (ekallio@unccd.int) or Marcos Montoiro (mmontoiro@unccd.int) at the UNCCD secretariat. Photo: Make Waves Media

The webinar will focus on the success factors linked to external business environment.

The Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit will set the stage for the culminating global event in September by bringing together diverse actors from around the world to leverage the power of food systems to deliver progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hosted by the Government of Italy, the Pre-Summit will take place in Rome from 26–28 July 2021. The event, which is open to all who would like to participate, will take a hybrid format, with an in-person component complemented by a vast virtual programme and platform. Through the Pre-Summit, the UN Food Systems Summit will reaffirm its commitment to promote human rights for all and ensure the most marginalized groups have an opportunity to participate in, contribute to and benefit from the Summit process. UNCCD will be participating in the Rio conventions ministerial roundtable as well as in sessions on food system approaches for climate, environment and biodiversity; agrobiodiversity for a sustainable future, and accelerating and scaling investment in soil health. More info and registration.