In 2015, governments identified their priorities and objectives to achieve LDN, and then backed them with strong political statements. Reflecting that demand for urgent action, within a year, the Global Mechanism and the secretariat of the UNCCD and its international partners had established the LDN Target Setting Programme, which takes countries through a structured process to help leverage, assess, measure and achieve their commitments to LDN. Already, countries’ efforts to identify shared visions, achievable solutions, priority hot-spots and monitoring baselines have shaped a new data-driven approach to tackling land degradation.

This brief can help convert countries’ commitments into concrete actions. For example, many national stakeholders say that the target setting process was the first time they had systematically analyzed the causes and effects of land degradation to make evidence based decisions on what is desirable and feasible to achieve by 2030. As they also indicate concern about human activities, particularly regarding deforestation, population pressure and agricultural practices, the findings of this brief can help countries to prioritize those decisions to multiply the benefits across other areas of sustainable development.