On the sidelines of the Eleventh Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 11), the UNCCD Secretariat launched a Soil Leadership Academy, with support from the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and "seed-funding" from Syngenta.
24 September 2013: On the sidelines of the Eleventh Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 11), the UNCCD Secretariat launched a Soil Leadership Academy, with support from the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and “seed-funding” from Syngenta.
The partnership is open to the participation of additional stakeholders. The Academy will seek to support and strengthen international decision-making processes and frameworks. This capacity-building partnership will involve the synthesis, documentation and provision of the latest science and good practices available on soil and land management, as well as efforts to ensure that this science and knowledge are used for policy development. The partnership will also seek to strengthen the international framework within the UNCCD process to support land restoration and conservation.
The Academy will establish a network of agricultural and scientific institutes and technical universities with relevant expertise, and synthesize state of the art science and best practices into accessible, policy-relevant formats for decision makers at the global and national levels. Curricula, model policy frameworks and guidance documents will also be designed. The partnership will develop a specific target for the number of millions of hectares under sustainable management and restored by 2018 through the initiative. [UNCCD Press Release] [UNCCD Website][Syngenta Press Release] [IISD RS Sources] [IISD RS Coverage of UNCCD COP 11]