2019: a year in review

2 December 2019
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UNCCD presents some of this year's milestones, which have become a reality thanks to the continued cooperation and unwavering support of the UNCCD family and stakeholders:

25 anniversary of UNCCD was celebrated this year
123 countries are now part of the Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting Programme
84 countries have established their voluntary LDN targets
67 countries had mapped ideas for transformative LDN projects and programmes
26 more countries joined the Drought Initiative this year, raising the total number of participating countries to 72, out of which 35 have completed their national drought plans
Land degradation indicator 15.3.1 has achieved the highest status in the SDG indicator framework
COP14 was the main UNCCD media event of 2019, with over 2 000 articles published in over 60 countries and the global audience of over 1.4 billion people reached
Nearly 6 000 participants took part in UNCCD COP14 with 10 days of meetings, 11 high-level, 30 committee and over 170 stakeholder meetings, 44 exhibitions and 126 side events
The number of visitors to the COP14 page was twice as much as for any previous COP, with 20 000 views per week
1 400 attendees used the conference app during COP14
The Drought ToolBox has been launched, with Pillar I "Drought Monitoring" covering all countries under the Drought Initiative
Drought vulnerability indicator became a part of UNCCD reporting process, to help countries build better disaster preparedness and response that best fits their needs
64 countries reported their World Day to Combat Desertification events, and 3 000 people attended the global observance event in Türkiye
First UNCCD Capacity Building Training Fair in Guyana attracted more than 300 participants from more than 110 countries as well as over 30 NGOs
12 000 new opportunities have been shared through the UNCCD online Capacity Building Marketplace
UNCCD published 22 new titles this year, including 4 regional Global Land Outlook reports and 3 UNCCD Science-Policy Interface reports
More than 12 200 people watched Sadhguru and Ibrahim Thaw Twitter Live discussion on how land users, governments and the civil society can collaborate to promote sustainable land management
Almost 20 000 people joined us on social media in 2019, four times more than the previous year