February 2011: The Environment Management Group (EMG) has presented a progress report on its work to prepare a UN system-wide rapid response and action report on drylands, with proposed options for a coherent UN-wide contribution to drylands challenges, including the implementation of the 10-year Strategic Plan of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) across the work of the UN system.

The EMG’s Issue Management Group (IMG) on Land indicates it is preparing the report, titled “Global Drylands: A United Nations system-wide response,” in a manner designed to interface with the intergovernmental process under the Convention. The progress report was submitted to the second special session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-2) and the ninth session of the Committee on the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 9), at their meetings from 16-25 February 2011, in Bonn, Germany, where feedback and comments were sought from parties.

The working draft of the report includes five chapters. The first introduces the location and issues of concern to the drylands. The second situates drylands in the global context. The third emphasizes drylands as an area for investment, and identifies some opportunities for investment in drylands. The fourth identifies existing UN action on drylands areas. Finally, the fifth chapter discusses a UN response for this issue.

Key findings from the report are expected to be presented to the high-level event on desertification at the opening of the 66th UN General Assembly in September 2011, and the final report will be presented to the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the UNCCD, in October 2011. [Publication: Progress Report. Global Drylands: A United Nations system-wide response] [IISD RS coverage of CST S-2 and CRIC 9]