24 July 2012: The first meeting of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group of Technical Experts for Impact Indicator Refinement (AGTE), which convened based on Decision 19/COP.10 by the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), considered the AGTA’s scope of work and working modalities.

COP 10 decided to establish an ad hoc advisory group of technical experts to continue the iterative participatory contribution from the scientific community, national focal points and scientific and technical correspondents on impact indicator refinement and the monitoring and assessment of impacts.

The first meeting of AGTE took place from 23-24 July 2012, in Bonn, Germany. This meeting sought to: ensure that AGTE members are well informed about the progress made in refining the set of impact indicators to date; AGTE members understand the four fundamental issues to be addressed, based on the COP decision; identify the scope of work and elements to be further elaborated and analyzed; and define the working modalities, allocation of tasks among the AGTE members, schedule and milestone planning. Among the Group’s decisions were to select a Chair (Gunilla Björklund) and Co-Chair (Guillermo Dascal).

The expected outputs for this Group include: a peer-reviewed working paper (or a series of peer-reviewed working papers); a progress report for the CST at its third special session; and a report containing precise and workable recommendations for consideration by the CST at its eleventh session (CST 11). The AGTE is made up of 15 members (two from each of the five UNCCD “Annex” regions, and five globally selected). [AGTE Webpage] [AGTE Meeting Report]