Communities worldwide unite for Her Land, Her Rights 

From women's soccer game in Chad to a solo marathon across the barren Aral Sea, and from tree planting to children's gardening competitions, this year's Desertification and Drought Day was marked with boundless creativity and impactful actions around the globe. 

Across continents, people everywhere found engaging ways to unite their communities and support “Her Land. Her Rights”. Close to 50 countries—from Argentina to Azerbaijan and from France to Fiji—reported dozens of events to mark this year's Day. Below are just a few that piqued our interest: 

• A football match between N'Djaména's two leading women's teams in Chad – as one of the nation’s Indigenous leaders Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim reminds us, “Without women, there cannot be a winning team in the fight against desertification” 
• The village of Nawailevu in Bua Province of Fiji invited visitors to share the first harvest from a model farm created on a former bauxite mining site to cultivate fruit, greens and root vegetables with the inclusion of agroforestry. Highlighting women’s land privileges as the foundation of household harmony and national development, the event also invited schoolkids attending the field day to take part in the Fiji Backyard Gardening Competition 
• The screening of the film about pioneers of cross-country sand skiing from France who embarked on a sporting epic to test solutions to drought resilience and climate adaptation by learning from the peoples of the desert 
• A native tree planting in the remote desert village of Gomawali in Rajastan, India, where women of the community take the lead in land restoration as part of the Familial Forestry Initiative launched by our Land for Life Award laureate Shyam Sunder Jyani 
• A village-wide dialogue in Kitui County, Kenya that included a survey on the participation of women in sustainable land management and resource conservation under various land tenure systems, a display of water-harvesting technologies, an inventory of drought-tolerant crop varieties and community donations of water-harvesting devices, drought resilient plants and farm animals 
• A female farmers' expo at the City Park in In Skopje, North Macedonia, that featured female heroes working in sustainable agriculture and showcased their products, with discussions on sustainable farming methods and distribution of free seeds and seedlings. 
• A social media challenge #thislandismyland launched by the Ministry of Agriculture in Saint Lucia, inviting the public to identify different landscapes and soil types in their communities, showing the ones most affected by the effects of desertification. Content creators who received the most likes were asked to Interview farmers and landowners and explain the negative impacts of desertification on their livelihoods 
• A lone runner from Uzbekistan who made a 42-mile trek across the dried-up bottom of the Aral Sea to attract the attention to the environmental problems of the region and inspire everyone to take on an active role in addressing them 

UNCCD Land Heroes have also been actively reaching out to their local and global communities: Musa Ibrahim participated in the Nigerian national dialogue on desertification while Patricia Kombo actively promoted #HerLand campaign on her social media channels, and Kehkashan Basu took to the UN General Assembly stage together with other LandSHEroes, issuing an urgent call to action to advance women’s land rights. 

Every action and every voice counts! Visit our website to discover events that took place around the world this Desertification and Drought Day and get creative planning the next one together with your community!