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This year’s Future Policy Award (FPA), presented by the World Future Council (WFC), will honor laws and policies that promote youth empowerment as a key element to achieve the 2030 Agenda as well as address sustainable development and justice challenges. The WFC particularly welcomes nominations of innovative and impactful laws, policies and legal frameworks that create enabling environments and empower young people in the following fields: Economic empowerment of young women and men through decent and sustainable jobs Youth civic engagement and political participation to support sustainable development and peace Nominations for programmes that specifically target vulnerable groups such as young girls and women in rural areas are especially welcome. The FPA is a valuable opportunity to promote the visibility and impact of a nominated organization, as well as raise global awareness on exemplary laws and policies. Representatives of international organizations, academia, non-governmental organizations, parliaments, government agencies, and others have until 26 April to nominate outstanding policies. More info...   

The fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties is scheduled to take place from 2 to 13 September 2019 at the India Expo Center and Mart, in New Delhi, India.  Some of the new and relevant issues that are on the radar of the governments include the interaction between climate and land, optimizing the mix of food, energy and environment demands on land, the rural-urban link, the negative feedback of land degradation on poverty and human health, the tremendous opportunity sustainable value chains may provide, the role of the faith communities and the rapidly growing global movement on land restoration both of which are essential to achieving land degradation neutrality, which is a pivotal Agenda 2030 target. Read more...

New York, 4 April 2019 – Sixty-plus international organizations, led by the United Nations and including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group and World Trade Organization, jointly sounded the alarm Thursday in a new report, warning that unless national and international financial systems are revamped, the world’s governments will fail to keep their promises on such critical issues as combatting climate change and eradicating poverty by 2030. In their 2019 Financing for Sustainable Development Report, the international organizations find some good news: investment has gained strength in some countries and interest in sustainable investing is growing, with 75 per cent of individual investors showing interest in how their investments affect the world.   And yet, greenhouse gas emissions grew 1.3 per cent in 2017; investment in many countries is falling; and 30 developing countries are now at high risk or already in debt distress. At the same time, global growth is expected to have peaked at around 3 per cent. Changing the current trajectory in financing sustainable development is not just about raising additional investment, says the report. Achieving global goals depends on supportive financial systems, and conducive global and national policy environments. Yet the report warns that creating favorable conditions is becoming more challenging. Rapid changes in technology, geopolitics, and climate are remaking our economies and societies, and existing national and multilateral institutions -- which had helped lift billions out of poverty -- are now struggling to adapt. Confidence in the multilateral system has been undermined, in part because it has failed to deliver returns equitably, with most people in the world living in countries with increasing inequality. “Trust in the multilateral system itself is eroding, in part because we are not delivering inclusive and sustainable growth for all,” said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his foreword to the report. “Our shared challenge is to make the international trading and financial systems fit for purpose to advance sustainable development and promote fair globalization.” The international agencies recommend concrete steps to overhaul the global institutional architecture and make the global economy and global finance more sustainable, including: supporting a shift towards long-term investment horizons with sustainability risks central to investment decisions; revisiting mechanisms for sovereign debt restructuring to respond to more complex debt instruments and a more diverse creditor landscape; revamping the multilateral trading system; addressing challenges to tax systems that inhibit countries from mobilizing adequate resources in an increasingly digitalized world economy; and addressing growing market concentration that extends across borders, with impacts on inequality.  At the national level, the report puts forward a roadmap for countries to revamp their public and private financial systems to mobilize resources for sustainable investment. It introduces tools for countries to align financing policies with national sustainable development strategies and priorities.   One example of the opportunities and challenges the report discusses is in new technologies and fintech (digitally enabled innovation in the financial sector).  With more than half a billion people gaining access to financial services in recent years, the appeal of fintech is clear.  But as new players enter and rapidly change the financing marketplace, regulators struggle to keep pace. As fintech grows in importance, activities outside the regulatory framework, if left unsupervised, may put financial stability at risk. Fintech’s promise can pay off with regulatory approaches that address these concerns, but these need to be implemented without stifling innovation. To this end, the report emphasizes the importance of discussions between fintech companies, financial institutions and regulators. It finds that regulatory attention will need to shift to financial activities and their underlying risks, no matter the entity that engages in them, rather than by institutional type. “We have a major opportunity to overcome bottlenecks in sustainable financing in 2019”, said Mr. Zhenmin Liu, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Chair of the Task Force that issued the report. “The responsibility rests with governments to recommit to multilateralism, and to take policy actions that will create a sustainable and prosperous future.” Background:  The report is a joint product of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development, which is comprised of more than 60 United Nations Agencies and international organizations. The Financing for Sustainable Development Office of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs serves as the substantive editor and coordinator of the Task Force, in close cooperation the World Bank Group, the IMF, WTO, UNCTAD, and UNDP. The Task Force was mandated by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and is chaired by Mr. Zhenmin LIU, Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs. The full copy of the report and the annex will be uploaded to: https://financing.desa.un.org/iatf/iatf-Home This report is the basis for discussions at the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development (15-18 April 2019), where Member States agree on measures necessary to mobilize sustainable financing. The SDG Investment Fair, which brings together government officials and investors, will also be held 15-16 April at the UN Headquarters.  More information on both events is at: https://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffdforum/ For further information, please contact: Kate Donovan, UNDESA, Tel: 1718 362 0606 Kathryn.donovan@un.org  

Bonn, Germany – UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw met with Ms. Karyna Gomes, a popular Creole singer and composer from Guinea Bissau who headlines this year's Over the Border music diversity festival endorsed by the Convention. Ms. Gomes grew up listening to traditional rhythms, and her music has been influenced by her life on three continents – Africa, Latin America and Europe. In her songs she addresses such pressing social issues as forced migration. During the meeting on March 27, Mr. Thiaw described the work of the Convention in the area of migration caused by land degradation. He also presented the 3S Initiative that invests in land restoration and sustainable land management to create millions of jobs for vulnerable groups, in particular young people, returning migrants and displaced populations.  UNCCD has been the partner of the Over the Border Festival since its inception four years ago. This year's festival dates are 21 March to 7 April. You can also catch Karyna's performance on Cosmo Radio on 5 April. Read more: About Karyna Gomes Over the Border music festival Land and human security 3S Initiative

By Monica Chiriac and Maria Veger/IOM Niger Agadez, Niger – Since December 2018, migrants staying at UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) transit center have been undertaking training in sustainable agriculture. The target is to train close to 500 West African migrants as they wait for their travel documents. 

IOM provides direct assistance to migrants who wish to return to their countries of origin from Niger under the Migrant Resource and Response Mechanism, funded by the European Union. Migrants have access to accommodation, water, food, medical care, preparation of travel documents, psychosocial support, recreational activities and vocational trainings in business management and agriculture. The trainings are offered five days a week in groups of 25, and are divided into technical and practical sessions that take place on the plots of land allocated by the UNCCD.

 The project is the result of the partnership of IOM and UNCCD that provides opportunities for reintegration of migrants by creating  land restoration jobs. The trainings aim to contribute to environmental and climate change action as well as prevent radicalization in both transit and origin countries, minimizing forced migration caused by environmental factors – an objective aligned with the Global Compact for Migration. Learn more: See photos from the training Watch training video 3S Initiative: Sustainability. Stability. Security

Guiyang, China – Mr. Pradeep Monga, UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary, on behalf of UNCCD, and Mr. Xu Qinglin, on behalf of Ningxia Forestry and Grassland Administration of China, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of the International Knowledge Management Center on February 26, 2019.  Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary, described the MoU as a very important step toward stronger cooperation between the UNCCD and China to enhance knowledge management as well as build capacity of national institutions and experience sharing among parties.  Thiaw referred to the new satellite data released by NASA showing a planet greener than it was 20 years ago, thanks in large part to the massive tree planting and sustainable agricultural practices being followed in China and India.  The event took place in the sidelines of the UNCCD COP13 Bureau meeting, held in Guiyang, China. The COP13 Bureau discussed, among others, the outcomes of the CRIC17 meeting recently held in Guyana, and the activities of the Committee on Science and Technology, including preparations for the upcoming CST14. The Bureau further addressed the draft agenda for the 14th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP14) to take place in October 2019 in New Delhi, India; and the details of the midterm evaluation of the UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework and the status of the study to evaluate the potential of the Convention to address desertification, as a driver of irregular migration.