Stories

23 March 2018 – For the second time, the city of Bonn welcomes the Global Festival of Action, serving as a testing ground for fresh ideas and daring ways to spread the message of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  While SDGs provide a blueprint for a better world, in the words of Deputy Secretary-General of the UN Amina Mohammad, they cannot be achieved by governments alone. SDG actors worldwide, including business, academia, indigenous groups, women and young people need to find new outlets for translating great ideas into global action.   Exploring extended reality as a way to engage people in the global sustainable movement, UNCCD's Global Mechanism presented the film about the Great Green Wall Initiative at the festival's Virtual Reality Zone. The movie, which puts the viewers in the middle of the desert experience, has premiered at the Paris Climate Change Conference and has been exhibited at events and public spaces around the world, generating funding and new partnerships. To invite young festival goers to become a part of the sustainable development process, the dynamic Capacity Building Marketplace (CBM) team offered a quiz on the importance of achieving Land Degradation Neutrality for the realization of the SDGs. Visitors to the UNCCD festival booth explored learning, funding and career opportunities available through the capacity-building platform created for young people and by young people, and many expressed interest in establishing partnerships between the CBM and their own capacity-development initiatives. The festival celebrated outstanding achievements in advancing SDGs throughout the world by giving the first United Nations SDG Action Awards in the categories of communicator, connector, includer, innovator, mobilizer, storyteller, and visualizer. The UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary  Mr. Pradeep Monga presented the "Visualizer Award" for the most innovative or impactful use of citizen voices to communicate with governments and the public. Read more: Land and the SDGs Land degradation neutrality

Antalya, Türkiye – 15 March, 2018 – 62 experts from 22 countries of Northern Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia attended the first regional training workshop on the new UNCCD reporting process. Participants included UNCCD national focal points, representatives of the National Statistic Offices, as well as GIS and land management experts. The series of five training workshops on PRAIS reporting is an important capacity-building initiative funded by UNEP/GEF Global Support Programme. The training in Antalya was organized in close collaboration with the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs of Türkiye, the Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion Control, and the FAO sub-regional office.  Participants were introduced to the new reporting requirements, including bio-physical progress indicators and linkages to the SDGs reporting. Due to its highly technical nature, the new UNCCD reporting process presents new challenges, creating the need to enhance the national capacity to generate, analyze, interpret and use Earth observation data. During the training, country teams received a chance to familiarize themselves with the default data available through the UNCCD secretariat to facilitate reporting and enhance harmonization and comparability among reporting countries. Attendees have also explored the option to use additional national data sources as a way to strengthen national ownership of the reporting process and increase the capacity for data production and use at the country level. As part of the training, representatives of Conservation International demonstrated technical tools that help explore, analyze and integrate geo-spatial data to derive estimates of the proportion of degraded land. The training also provided an opportunity for the UNCCD country parties to learn from each other and share national experiences in land monitoring.  The workshop in Türkiye will be followed by regional trainings in Ethiopia (19 – 22 March), Brazil (9 – 12 April), India (24 – 27 April), and Egypt (6 – 9 May). Read more: 2017-2018 reporting process Online reporting tutorials        

Bonn, Germany – 13 March, 2018 – A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by the UNCCD Executive Secretary Ms. Monique Barbut and the Korea Forest Service (KFS) Director General Mr. Ki Yeon Ko, will serve as a commitment to continued support by the Republic of Korea for the implementation of the Convention through the Changwon Initiative. The Initiative, launched at the UNCCD COP 10 in 2011 in Changwon, Republic of Korea, has advocated for land degradation neutrality (LDN) and played a key role in the implementation of the first UNCCD 10-year Strategy (2008-2018) and the transition to the new UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework. The full impact of this support will become even more apparent as LDN, now integrated into the Strategic Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals, is implemented at national level.

Bangkok, Thailand – 8 March, 2018 – To commemorate the International Women’s Day, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), UN Women and the UN RCM Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women held a joint event to discuss the progress made in ensuring women’s rights, empowerment and equality.  The dialogue centered around the need for urgent action to guarantee that women across Asia and the Pacific, in towns and in the countryside, have equal access to opportunities and resources at all levels of society and the economy. Recently launched UN Women global flagship report “Turning Promises into Action: Gender equality in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” highlights stark gender inequalities that still exist. To answer the call of the 2030 Agenda and ensure that no one is left behind, it is imperative to move from promises to action, using innovative financing models that can sustain the advancement of gender equality, and to produce additional data that can support gender-responsive policy-making and programming.  

Bangkok, Thailand – 8 March, 2018 – To celebrate International Women’s Day, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in collaboration with UN Women Asia and the Pacific and the Embassy of Sweden, hosted the ceremony “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality 2018” as part of the global campaign to promote the key role of the private sector in advancing gender equality and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5. The event included a panel discussion on the “Future of work for women” that featured UN experts, senior researchers and business executives, who highlighted the importance of women’s empowerment for economic prosperity and sustainable development. By ensuring the inclusion and full participation of women across all levels and sectors of economy, the companies can reap significant dividends to grow and sustain their businesses, empower communities and invest in global sustainability.   During the event, the business leaders of Thailand signalled their support for gender equality by ringing a bell. SET is one of 59 stock exchanges around the world that hosted a bell-ringing ceremony on the International Women’s Day. 

At the invitation of the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the seventeenth session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC17) will take place in Georgetown, Guyana in January 2019.The meeting will be held at Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) /Arthur Chung Conference Centre.