Governing bodies meetings

The next UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – the largest-ever meeting of UNCCD’s 197 Parties, the first to be held in the Middle East region and the largest multilateral conference ever hosted by Saudi Arabia. Happening in the year that also marks the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD. COP16 is set to become a landmark event for accelerating action on land restoration, drought resilience and green transition. More info: https://www.unccd.int/cop16

Approaching to UNCCD COP16, the CST Bureau will hold their next meeting in UN campus, Bonn, Germany on 22  March 2024, back-to-back with the 19th SPI meeting and the Joint session of SPI-Bonn Water Network on land-water nexus. The Bureau meeting will focus its agenda on two key items. One is the way of organization of the Plenary of 16th session of the Committee on Science and Technology as interactive dialogue between the Parties to the SPI and special events of science during COP16. The other is to review and discuss those scientific issues that may benefit COP16 decisions, including: IWG mid-term evaluation on how science will be organized in the UNCCD in the future. Maximizing STCs participation in COP16. Improving communication with STCs. Future arrangements/pathways for the scientific contributions to the UNCCD Strategic Framework and provision of advice on methodological matters related to reporting. Exploring ways to help ensure the secretariat has the capacity and budget to support the UNCCD science agenda. The provisional agenda is attached.

The Conference of Parties at its fifteenth session (UNCCD COP 15) established an Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought  during the triennium 2022 - 2024, tasked with identifying and evaluating global policy instruments and regional policy frameworks in the context of the national plans to effectively manage drought under the Convention, including supporting a shift from reactive to proactive drought management. Leading up to UNCCD COP16, the group will hold the next (fifth) meting in La Serena, Chile on 18-21 March 2024) and the sixth and final meeting will take place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 3-6 June 2024 to address the following topics: Financing mechanisms for drought resilience; Setting of global target and global work programme for drought resilience Legally binding protocol or Amendment to the Convention Non-legally binding decisions, political declaration, or other kind of non-legally binding instruments outside the Convention

The twenty-first session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 21) to the UNCCD will take place at the Silk Road Samarkand Congress Center, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan from 13 to 17 November 2023.   Consultations of affected country Parties of the Convention’s regional implementation annexes for Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe in preparation for CRIC 21 will be convened on 12 November 2023, at the Silk Road Samarkand Congress Center. At CRIC 21 Parties will review the assessment of implementation of the UNCCD along the Strategic Objectives of the 2018 – 2030 UNCCD Strategic Framework and its implementation framework with a view of providing targeted recommendations on strategic objectives. Updates on specific activities supporting Parties in their voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target-setting efforts and on how they advance action towards implementation with the support of the Global Mechanism and relevant Partners, including the LDN Fund will be also presented. Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Working Group on effective policy and implementation measures for addressing drought under the UNCCD will present its progress report for consideration by Parties at CRIC21. Also, in line with decision 7/COP15 (Annex I), participatory consultations on the conclusions and recommendations of the independent assessment will be conducted to identify possible future action to further enhance the implementation of the UNCCD 2018–2030 Strategic Framework. In accordance with requests made by Parties, the session will facilitate interactive exchanges among Parties and their development partners on topics selected by the Bureau of the CRIC. A high- level event on Sand and Dust Storms will be organized by the Government of Uzbekistan under the aegis of the CRIC 21. The provisional agenda (ICCD/CRIC(21)/1) and the pre-session documentation are being made available on the CRIC21 official documents page In order to assist delegations in preparing for the conference, a document entitled “Information for participants” (ICCD/CRIC(21)/INF.1) will also be made available shortly on the same CRIC21 webpage. Online registration will be available from 11 September 2023 at the following link: www.unccd.int/cric-21-online-registration

The 3rd meeting of the UNCCD Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought is currently underway in Madrid, Spain. Opened by the Vice-president and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of Spain Teresa Ribera, and UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Andrea Meza, the meeting brings together the elected representatives of UNCCD regional groups, together with experts and civil society observes. The purpose of the meeting is to advance the development of global policy options for proactive drought management and improved drought resilience. Together with Senegal, Spain is the co-chair of the International Drought Resilience Alliance – a global collaborative platform that supports countries and communities undertaking the urgent shift from emergency drought response to increasing resilience through a more coordinated and effective early action.

The second meeting of the UNCCD Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) on Drought took place in Yerevan, Armenia 14-15 March 2023. The IWG on Drought, which previously gathered in Bonn, Germany, on 29-30 November 2022, was established by the UNCCD Conference of Parties at its fifteenth Session COP 15 for 2022-2024 triennium to identify and evaluate all options, including global policy instruments, regional policy frameworks and national plans to effectively manage drought under the Convention and support a shift from reactive to proactive drought management.   Thanking the government of the Republic of Armenia for hosting the meeting, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw highlighted the importance of united efforts and a strong political commitment to global partnerships that transform actions and mindsets to enhance drought resilience, reduce human suffering and promote sustainable development.

The second inter-sessional meeting of the COP 15 Bureau will be held on 1 March 2023, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The IWG-MTE held its first meeting from 13 to 15 February 2023 in Bonn, Germany. The purpose of this meeting was to set the basis for the midterm evaluation and to consider the programme of work of the IWG-MTE. The group considered the content, implementation and monitoring of the Strategic Framework and discussed on the scope, focus and methodology of the independent assessment. The secretariat and the Global Mechanism, as well as the team of external evaluators that will prepare the independent assessment, made several presentations on these topics. Information was provided also on a variety of other processes that are interlinked with the midterm evaluation, such as the IWG on drought and the review of the Science-Policy Interface. The IWG-MTE considered its own tasks and work programme and agreed on a schedule for its work. Its first task is to ensure that the independent assessment is responsive to the objectives and criteria of the evaluation and conducted according to high evaluation standards, and many related measures were considered at the first meeting. The group also discussed in detail its task of advising the secretariat on the organisation of the participatory consultations on the conclusions and recommendations of the independent assessment. According to the COP decision on the terms of reference of the midterm evaluation, these consultations are to be organised during the CRIC, but they are not included in the programme of work for the CRIC. This leaves room for differing interpretations bon how and when the consultations would be organised. The matter is now with the CRIC Bureau, and it will provide its recommendation for the consideration of the COP Bureau. Next steps In the coming weeks, the IWG MTE members and observers will provide further feedback to the preparation of the independent assessment. By the end of March, the planning of the assessment will be completed and the team of evaluators will start the data collection. In April-May, the UNCCD national focal points, science-technology correspondents, accredited civil society organisations and other key stakeholders will be invited to participate in a survey, and some targeted interviews will be organised as well. The IWG-MTE will discuss on the emerging findings of the independent assessment in an online meeting of the group before the end of June. Its next in-person meeting will be held immediately after the CRIC session in October. That meeting will start the consideration of the report of the group, building on the independent assessment.

In their first meeting which took place in Bonn from 29-30 November 2022, the members of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought (IWG) underscored the urgency and importance of addressing drought holistically, given the world has never been affected by dry spells as much as today. Thinking ahead and acting in advance of drought has far lower costs than reacting and responding to the impacts once drought hits. The Group discussed the need to provide further guidance and advice for the next COP 16 to advance the global drought agenda. The group members also deliberated on the working modalities and further refined their workplan for the next two years.   The next IWG is scheduled to take place in mid-March 2023. 

The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the meetings of its subsidiary bodies will take place at the Sofitel Abidjan Hôtel Ivoire in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 9 to 20 May 2022.