When UN member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, we celebrated world leaders’ recognition of the foundational and strategic role that sustainable land management must play to advance climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and maintain sufficient food supplies for us all. Nine years after the SDGs were set in motion and over halfway into their implementation timeframe, it is important to assess how far we have come: what have countries done to address their ambitious but critical cross-cutting commitments to combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world?