11 October 2010: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has re-appointed Luc Gnacadja (Benin) as the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Gnacadja’s second three-year term took effect from 1 October 2010. The past three years have brought a number of changes to the Convention, with the adoption of the Convention’s first 10-year Strategy by the Conference of the Parties (COP) in September 2007, the adoption of performance and impact indicators to assess and monitor the implementation of the Convention, and the amendment of the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Charter to include the financing of country activities related to the UNCCD. [UNCCD Press Release]