The 2019 Africa SDG Index and Dashboards Report is a call for action not only to meet the SDGs but also to ensure timely and high-quality data on SDG indicators. The report focuses on the efforts that African governments are taking to incorporate the SDGs into their national strategies, budgets, public engagements, and coordination among branches of government. This report includes all 54 African countries and their country profiles.

The GEF Land Degradation Focal Area provides the framework for eligible countries1 to utilize GEF resources for implementing the UNCCD. Through the focal area, the GEF provides incremental financing for countries to invest in sustainable land management (SLM) activities that generate multiple environmental and development benefits. In most developing countries, SLM represents a major opportunity for sustainable intensification of existing farmlands, leading to sustained productivity.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems in 2019 (www.ipcc.ch/srccl). We refer to the IPCC’s report in short here as the Special Report on Climate Change and Land. The Special Report was a response to proposals from governments and observer organisations to the IPCC.

Desertification, land degradation and drought affect more than 2 billion people and the situation might worsen due to the unsustainable use of soil and water under present scenarios of climate change. The UNCCD 10-year strategy points out the importance of science, knowledge sharing systems and awareness raising to support policymakers in reversing this trend. Sustainable land management practices, including sustainable agriculture, provide important local, regional and global benefits.

Under the present conditions of climate change and the growing scarcity of productive natural capital such as arable land and water, The strategy aims to rally a global coalition to deliver benefits for people and ecosystems everywhere and generate downto-earth responses to some of the major international challenges of our time.

The world’s drylands are among the most vulnerable ecosystems on our planet. Desertification and land degradation are affecting huge land areas, jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of people. Unsustainable management practices in dryland cultivation and pastoralism have given rise to widespread soil erosion, reduction of the biological production of soils, reduction of vegetation cover, and depletion of surface and groundwater resources.

The Arab region is a diverse one when it comes to sustainable development. In recent years and decades, we have seen both major success stories in prosperity and stability, but we have also witnessed tragic conflicts and wars. At the same time, the 22 countries of the region are bound together by a common history, language and culture. We share many similar challenges and opportunities. Instability and human insecurity are in no one’s interest.

Land has a value for each and every one of us. Fertile soil provides us with plant life, vegetables, grains, and fibres. Forests supply us with timber and firewood. We benefit from fresh water, food, and many other ecosystem services that land provides us with. Land is also emotionally valuable to people as well, perhaps through associating treasured memories such as playing on it as a child. In any case, all societies and people assign historical and cultural value to their landscapes, their nature, and all natural phenomena associated with land. However, lands are in danger.

In the past decades, debates on agriculture, land use and management of natural resources have coined a wealth of new terms. In many cases, these are in full vogue for just a period, replace older ones or are used for political reasons. Meanwhile, there are so many terms that it is difficult to keep track and distinguish them from each other.

The Kyoto Protocol negotiated in the mid-1990s to address climate change adaptation and mitigation will be replaced by a post-Kyoto agreement in 2012. The new agreement under negotiation needs to seal the policy gaps in adaptation and mitigation that were omitted or excluded from Kyoto on account of scientific uncertainties. Particular attention needs to be given to the potential of land in all its dimensions considering its high capacity to store carbon. Land stores twice as much organic carbon as vegetation and the atmosphere combined.

The remit of this paper is to identify and examine “success” stories in combating desertification.

The drylands of the world occur on every continent, covering some 41% of the terrestrial surface. One third
of humanity inhabits these harsh degrading landscapes, eking out a living through adaptive processes that
have served them well until recent increases of land degradation. Growing pressures from population growth,