8 March 2018
UNCCD Secretariat Unveils SDG-Aligned Reporting and Capacity Building Process
Photo by IISD | Lynn Wagner
story highlights

The Secretariat of the UN Conference to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has unveiled new templates and a capacity building process to help countries with monitoring and reporting on progress towards the new 2018-2030 Strategic Framework.

Reporting will highlight countries’ progress and impact in relation to five strategic objectives: improve the condition of ecosystems and affected populations; mitigate drought; derive global environmental benefits; and mobilize financial and non-financial resources to support UNCCD implementation.

5 March 2018: The Secretariat of the UN Conference to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has unveiled new templates and a capacity building process to help countries with monitoring and reporting on progress towards the new 2018-2030 Strategic Framework. The first set of reports will be discussed at the next meeting of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 17), scheduled for early 2019.

UNCCD Parties adopted the new strategic framework during the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) in September 2017. Unlike the previous 10-year Strategy where countries primarily reported against a set of “performance” indicators, future reports will highlight countries’ progress and impact in relation to five strategic objectives that seek to: improve the condition of ecosystems and affected populations; mitigate drought; derive global environmental benefits; and mobilize financial and non-financial resources to support the implementation of the Convention.

In view of weak reporting capacity in some countries, the UNCCD’s PRAIS (Performance Review and Assessment of Implementation System) online platform provides access to partly pre-filled templates containing default data on three biophysical indicators (trends in land cover, trends in land productivity, and trends in carbon stocks above and below ground.) These three indicators were also adopted under the SDG framework for reporting on progress towards target 15.3 on land degradation neutrality (LDN).

Since 2014, the UNCCD Secretariat and Global Mechanism have provided support to more than 100 countries to embark on their LDN target setting processes. This initiative, as well as the launch of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) “enabling funding portfolio,” coordinated by the UN Environment Programme, are expected to lend support to countries in producing standardized and high quality reports. In addition, as part of preparations for CRIC 17, the UNCCD Secretariat and its partners are convening six regional capacity building workshops to explore the status of implementation and various issues linked to monitoring and reporting that will also touch on national and regional synergies with the SDG process. [UNCCD Press Release] [Video: Introduction to the 2017-2018 Reporting Process] [UNCCD Prais Portal] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on outcome of UNCCD COP 13]


related events


related posts