Ministerial Breakfast of the Group of Friends on the Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (GOF DLDD)…

The event, facilitated and attended by Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary, offered the opportunity to recommit to achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. The LDN tool is recognized as an accelerator and integrator to speed up the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals. 

Further, the Group called on the upcoming Climate Action Summit to harness land-based solutions through sustainable land management and land restoration to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. Noting that women bear the brunt of desertification, land degradation, and drought, members of the GOF affirmed that land restoration, seen as an enabler to achieve land degradation neutrality, will contribute to women’s empowerment for better livelihoods.

Participants agreed that the funding of the land restoration movement will require private sector investments, noting that this undertaking must take place at scale for the world to achieve land degradation neutrality. They had an exchange of ideas about land restoration as an important business case to attract the private sector. 

The Group took note, with appreciation, of the role of the New York-based members of the Group and encouraged them to pursue their role of champion for the cause in order to maintain and enhance the momentum of the restoration movement as well as tackle the challenge of drought in their work in New York.

GOF DLDD (the Group of Friends on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought) was established at the initiative of Iceland and Namibia after the Rio Plus 20 Summit and has been a champion, at the General Assembly level, in advocating for high priority to be accorded to Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) issues.
It was GOF DLDD’s unrelenting vigilance and advocacy of land degradation neutrality through the complex negotiating process on the SDGs and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda that in the final hours resulted in the adoption of Goal 15 and a meaningful target 15.3 on achieving the target of land degradation neutrality with a timeframe of 2030. The Group has since been at the center of all new developments profiling and featuring DLDD issues in the global agenda in the General Assembly-led processes.

For more information contact: Melchiade Bukuru, bukuru [at] un.org