COP 13

The thirteenth session of the Conference of Parties (COP 13) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held from 6 to 16 September 2017 in Ordos, China.

At COP 13, Parties adopted a decision endorsing the Gender Plan of Action (GAP) to support gender-responsive implementation of the UNCCD 2018−2030 Strategic Framework, to strengthen the implementation of the advocacy policy framework on gender equality. Despite references to women’s roles and participation in the Convention text and several COP decisions calling for more attention to gender issues in the context of land degradation, desertification and drought, a systematic and consistent approach for doing so remained to be achieved.

In support of such efforts, UN Women organized a two-day workshop ahead of COP 13 to build the capacity of Parties and other relevant stakeholders on gender mainstreaming in the implementation of the UNCCD, including on land degradation neutrality (LDN), and to share practical approaches and experiences on gender mainstreaming, including at the national level and for integrating a gender perspective in projects. The workshop resulted in a research paper that incorporated key takeaways from workshop case studies and analyzed entry points for integrating gender perspectives in the implementation of the Convention.

UN Women gave further visibility to gender equality issues by co-organizing the third edition of the UNCCD COP Gender Day, along with UNDP and the UNCCD Secretariat, on the theme of promoting gender mainstreaming in the development of transformative LDN projects.