The termination of the African Humid Period (AHP) induced the most significant, broad-scale landscape change that occurred on the African continent during the Holocene. Although variable in tempo and spatial distribution, rainfall profoundly decreased across most of the northern half of Africa and…

The New Urban Agenda was formally adopted by national governments at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, commonly referred to as Habitat III, on 20 October 2016, in the city of Quito, Ecuador. The agreement provides the road-map for sustainable urban…

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is the new paradigm for managing land degradation, introduced to halt the ongoing loss of healthy land as a result of unsustainable management and land conversion. The goal of LDN is to maintain the land resource base so that it can continue to supply ecosystem…

The International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy is a book series that discusses central questions in law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land – at the international, national and regional level. Volume 3 of the International Yearbook of Soil Law…

Rural women - a quarter of the world’s population - work as farmers, wage earners and entrepreneurs. They represent an important share of the agriculture workforce and their contribution to the rural economy is widely underestimated. They are concentrated in the informal economy in low-skilled, low…

More than two billion people are living in countries under water stress and 3.6 billion people face inadequate access to water at least one month per year. Meanwhile, water-related hazards have increased in frequency for the past 20 years. Since 2000, flood-related disasters have increased by 134%…

0.7% Is All We Have To Grow All Our Food

Results and tools developed by the Poverty- Environment Initiative (PEI). The Poverty- Environment Initiative (PEI) of the United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme aims to support countries in implementing policies, instruments, plans and budgets that combine the…

As an outcome of the debut edition of the UN Reflection Series, the United Nations System Staff College in collaboration with the Hertie School of Governance launched a publication titled “UN Reflection Series 2016: Development Cooperation, Policy Advice and Middle Income Countries”.

Millions acres of land restored and things are only just getting started. It could be our planet's greatest ever lesson in grassroots-led, ecological development, from people for people.The GGW aims to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world’s poorest…

This tool was designed to: Enable companies to better assess the significance of land to their business. Create awareness of the importance of land degradation and catalyze actions towards the implementation of sustainable land management projects. Not require an intensive data collection effort to…

This report identifies 25 clean air measures that can positively impact human health, grop yields, climate change and socio-economic development, as well as contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Implementing these measures could help 1 billion people breathe cleaner air by 2030…

The 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will also focus to the issue of drought. COP 13 is meeting in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, from 6-16 September. One of three ministerial round tables at the Conference will address the…

As the consequences of climate change accumulate, many experts expect to see migration away from the world’s most impacted regions as people seek a climate and an economy that better sustains human life. This will add to migratory movements caused by other more traditional reasons: civil wars…