UNCCD CRIC23 note verbale

The secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) presents its compliments to the Parties and Observer States to the Convention and has the honour to inform that the twenty-third session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 23) to the UNCCD will take place at the Panama Convention Center, in Panama City, Panama from 1 to 5 December 2025. 

Consultations of affected country Parties of the Convention’s regional implementation annexes for Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe in preparation for CRIC 23 will be convened on 30 November 2025, at the Panama Convention Center. Further information on the regional consultations will be shared in a separate communication. 

In due consideration of the above, the secretariat of UNCCD has the honour to invite your Government to participate in CRIC 23. 

The provisional agenda (ICCD/CRIC(23)/1) and the pre-session documentation will be made available on the UNCCD website in due time. 

In line with decision 13/COP16, at CRIC 23, Parties will review the effective implementation of the Convention at national, subregional and regional levels. To this end, updates on the implementation of voluntary land degradation neutrality targets and related implementation efforts and the ensured follow-up on policy frameworks identified by the Conference of the Parties at its sixteenth session will be presented at CRIC23. The status of development and promotion of activities for targeted capacity-building to further the implementation of the Convention will be also considered by the session. 

A report on the status of improving the procedures for communication of information as well as the quality and formats of reports to be submitted to the Conference of the Parties as mandated by decision 4/COP16, will be also presented at CRIC23. 

The Intergovernmental Working Group on Future Strategic Framework of the Convention will present its interim report for consultation to Parties, intergovernmental organizations and regional groups at CRIC23. Also, in line with decision 20/COP.16 OP8, the CRIC23 will consider priorities for science–policy guidance with the aim of enabling Parties to provide initiative to and feedback on the work of the Science-Policy Interface, with particular attention to contributing to the content of each flagship report. 

Distribution: To Parties and Observer States through their Diplomatic Missions accredited to the Federal Republic of Germany, National Focal Points and Permanent Missions accredited to UNOG.

Through its decision 25/COP.16 the Parties requested that Gender Caucus be convened as part of the official programme of work of the CRIC23 as a vehicle for identifying bottlenecks in the implementation of the Gender Action Plan and for sharing best practices in advancing gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment, and encouraging the participation and engagement of women and girls from Indigenous Peoples, local communities, youth and civil society organizations. 

In accordance with requests made by Parties, the session will facilitate interactive exchanges among Parties and their development partners on topics selected by the Bureau of the CRIC. 

In order to assist delegations in preparing for the conference, a document entitled “Information for participants” (ICCD/CRIC(23)/INF.1) is made available on the UNCCD website. 

As per past practice, CRIC 23 will be a paperless session. Accordingly, official documents of the session and its daily journal will not be printed and distributed. All such documents will be made available on the UNCCD website and app. 

The secretariat would be grateful if your Government would kindly nominate the representative(s) who will attend CRIC 23. Online registration will be available from 15 September 2025 at the following link. For more information on the online registration, please refer to the document “Information for participants” (ICCD/CRIC(21)/INF.1). 

The secretariat would like to kindly recall that participants are responsible for getting their own visas, hotel reservations and any type of health or other insurance they may need. Participants requiring visas must apply online by filling-up the visa application form at https://lara.migracion.gob.pa and uploading a scanned copy of a facial photo and their passport bio-data page. A quick guide with step-by-step instructions on how to apply will be published on the UNCCD CRIC 23 webpage as soon as possible.

The secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification avails itself of the opportunity to renew to the Parties and Observer States to the Convention the assurances of its highest consideration.