The UNCCD marks a historic leadership transition as outgoing Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw hands over responsibilities to Yasmine Fouad, former Minister of Environment of Egypt, at the Convention’s secretariat headquarters in Bonn.
A Mauritanian national, Thiaw led the UNCCD secretariat since 2019, having served the environment movement for more than 40 years, the last twelve with the United Nations. Under his leadership, the Convention advanced in its mission to protect people and ecosystems by restoring our land and ensuring a safer, just and more sustainable future.
While land degradation and desertification are perceived as insurmountable challenges, the UNCCD has proved that land restoration unlocks multiple solutions. There are few places on earth where this is truer than in Africa’s Sahel, the (greater) Middle East and Central Asia. The UNCCD has thus supported Parties in need develop and carry out large-scale restoration activities, such as the Great Green Wall(s) in Africa or the Middle East Green Initiative. Bringing degraded land back to health generates more food on the table, stabilizes economies and societies, combats climate change and restores water and biodiversity. The G20 Global Land Restoration Initiative also contributes to such effort.
The last four years have seen an awakening in the need for stepped up global efforts to build resilience to increasingly frequent and intense droughts, culminating in the launch of the International Drought Resilience Alliance in 2022 and the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership in 2024, backed by strong political and financial commitments.