The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is one of three international environmental agreements (addressing climate, biodiversity, and desertification respectively) that emerged out of the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro. In 2019, Parties adopted a landmark decision on land tenure, making the UNCCD the first "Rio Convention" to explicitly mention secure access to land as a critical enabler for equitable and sustainable development.

With its focus on inclusive land governance, TMG has actively contributed to land tenure negotiations at successive UNCCD conferences. At the ongoing COP 15 session in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, we have co-organized four side events with diverse partners, exploring rights-based approaches to land governance and realizing the UNCCD's global target of achieving land degradation neutrality by 2030.

TMG partner Violet Shivutse, founder of the Shibuye Community Health Workers (speaking on the left), TMG's Jes Weigelt and Alexander Mueller (middle) and TMG' David Betge (right) during a side event at the COP15 in Abidjan.

In the first of a series of thought pieces building on TMG’s years of work with national partners in four African countries, TMG's Managing Director, Alexander Mueller, and Head of Programmes, Jes Weigelt, unpack how the UNCCD land tenure decision can be implemented on the ground.

Read the IPS News op-ed.