The Cook Islands has been a party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) since ratifying the environmental convention in 1998. The core issues of sustainable land management and drought mitigation and preparedness covered under the convention are particularly relevant to the Cook Islands and indeed the wider Pacific. As such, strong engagement with the convention assists the Cook Islands with capacity development and support, and well as access to technical and financial resources provided through the Global Environment Facility and other partners.
Hayley Weeks, NES Manager of Environmental Partnerships, attended UNCCD’s third Intergovernmental Working Group on the Midterm Evaluation (IWG-MTE) of its 2018-2030 Strategic Framework recently concluded in Bonn, Germany. Hayley has been a member of the working group since its establishment in 2022, after being selected through a competitive process as a representative of the Asia-Pacific regional group and has followed its proceedings closely throughout this time.
The purpose of the meeting was to review and finalise key recommendations that were developed following an independent assessment of the effectiveness of the UNCCD’s Strategic Framework, which spans the implementation period 2018-2030. The comprehensive review of the strategy’s effectiveness is integral in determining its impact and responsive to the needs of the UNCCD, its Party countries and other key stakeholders and partners.
The recommendations developed through the work of the group, with ongoing support from the UNCCD Secretariat, seek for continual improvement of UNCCD implementation at national, regional and global levels, in order to best address the core environmental issues covered under the Convention, which includes desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD).
Draft recommendations were reviewed and considered throughout the course of the meetings and discussed and negotiated extensively by the working group members, in order to deliver a final recommendation, report to the UNCCD’s 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16), which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December 2024.
A Cook Islands delegation will be attending COP16 and will prepare national positions on the recommendations of the report ahead of their attendance.
Further information about the working group can be found here, and about COP16 here.
