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18 April 2018 – Bonn, Germany – Mr. Juan Carlos Mendoza has been appointed as Managing Director of the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD. The appointment was announced by the UNCCD Executive Secretary, Ms. Monique Barbut, who expressed her confidence in the new Managing Director who took up his duties on 26 March 2018. It is with great pleasure that I introduce Mr. Juan Carlos Mendoza from Colombia as the new Managing Director of the Global Mechanism.  Mr. Mendoza brings a rich blend of experience from the private sector, international negotiations and regulatory processes into the top management of the UNCCD secretariat. — Ms. Monique Barbut, UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Mendoza brings to the position extensive experience at the intersection of international development, climate finance, project finance, international policy, and resource mobilization. He has served in a number of high-profile positions, including ten years at the World Bank in both technical and managerial roles, and more recently as part of the senior management team and interim Director at the Green Climate Fund (GCF). He has been responsible for designing and implementing key components of the operational procedures, coordination and complementarity with other financial mechanisms and resource mobilization strategies of the Green Climate Fund. At the World Bank, he managed the relationship with the key funders for the Bank’s Pacific program, particularly the governments of Australia and New Zealand. He was also the advisor to the Bank’s Vice-President for concessional finance and global partnerships where he was part of the team that successfully reached a replenishment of USD50 billion for the International Development Association, the Bank’s fund for the poorest countries.  I am excited to join the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD at a crucial time when we are moving to support countries to achieve the targets that have been identified during the Land Degradation Neutrality target setting process undertaken under the Convention. — Mr. Juan Carlos Mendoza, Managing Director of the Global Mechanism of UNCCD Mr. Mendoza holds a Bachelor and Master degrees in Aerospace Engineering from, respectively, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master in Public Policy from Georgetown University. Read more: The Global Mechanism The land degradation neutrality target-setting programme

The following three candidates are suitable for the elections to become the alternate CSO representative to the SPI: Noel Oettle/Environment Monitoring Group/South Africa: presentation | application form Surya Narayana Reddy/Grameena Vikas Samithi/India: presentation | application form Pradeep Mahapatra/UDYAMA/India: presentation | application form Please use the this form to vote for the best candidate. Deadline for the submission of your vote is 27 April 2018 midnight CET. You are requested to select only one of the proposed candidates, whose applications have been reviewed by the CSO Panel taking into account the requirements indicated in the call for CSO representative to the SPI.  The most voted candidate will be elected alternate CSO Observer to the SPI. 

11 April 2018 – Bonn, Germany – The first intersessional meeting of the COP 13 Bureau gathered in Bonn to take stock of the progress towards implementing decisions taken at the UNCCD COP13 in Ordos, China. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Wu Zhimin, Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, State Administration of Forestry and Grassland of China. Openings remarks were made by the President and the UNCCD Executive Secretary Ms. Monique Barbut. Addressing the meeting participants, Ms. Barbut outlined the work to be done during the next biennium according to the COP13 decisions that will drive the UNCCD activities around the implementation and reporting related to the new UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework.  During the meeting, the activities of the Committee on Science and technology (CST), the Committee for the review of the implementation of the Convention (CRIC), the final report and the outcomes of the thirteen session of the Conference of the Parties (COP13), the Work plan of the Secretariat, the Global Mechanism and the subsidiary bodies of the Convention have been discussed.   The next COP 13 Bureau meeting is scheduled to take place in February 2019 in the People’s Republic of China.

Under the theme "Sahel: cap vers une agriculture familiale, Comment assurer une valorisation des potentiels locaux?, Quelles coalitions d'acteurs pour bâtir avec les communautés un avenir durable?" the NGO SOS Sahel will organize the second edition of the Africa Days in Dakar, Senegal on 4-5 May 2018. The forum will focus on the small-scale agriculture as a way to bring value to the potential of the local communities. A market place and field visit will also portray the actions on the ground aiming at protecting the environment while ensuring the sustainable development of the populations dependent on agriculture. More information (in French): Programme  Terms of Reference Save the date

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If you track science in the news regularly, you may have noticed the release of the IPBES Assessment Report on Land Degradation and Restoration, a landmark global scientific assessment of land degradation and restoration and its summary for policy makers. Most of the press reported the almost unfathomable extent of the problem. About 75% of all land is impacted by degradation. This is compromising the well-being of nearly half of the people on Earth and costing 10% of the annual global gross product in lost ecosystem services. The impending doom is not to be taken lightly. But the press reports obscure a wealth of information in the Assessment, which can lead to solutions