In Ulaanbaatar, UNCCD COP 17 confirmed a major priority for Africa: move more quickly from commitments to implementation. Faced with drought, land degradation and growing pressure on water and livelihoods, the continent is advancing an approach based on anticipation, restoration, cooperation and better access to finance.
From negotiation to action:an African urgency
COP 17 closed with a clear message: the time has come for implementation. In Africa, where drought directly affects water availability, food security, local economies and livelihoods, the challenge is immediate. Prevention, anticipation, stronger capacities and investment in resilience must now guide action.
Drought occupied a central place in the negotiations. Although Parties have not yet reached a final agreement on a global framework for proactive drought management, retaining it as a standalone item on the Convention's agenda is an important political signal. For African countries, this reinforces the need to sustain collective mobilization while accelerating prevention, warning and adaptation systems.
COP 17 also recorded progress for rangelands, pastoralism, land restoration and drought resilience. The launch of the Rangelands Flagship Initiative, mobilizing $1.2 billion through 45 projects, reflects the determination to better address drylands, pastoral communities and the livelihoods that depend on them.
Finance restoration and make funding truly accessible
Finance ran through all the discussions. A $1.3 billion portfolio for land restoration and drought resilience across 23 countries was announced. These commitments demonstrate growing mobilization, but their impact will depend on their conversion into accessible finance, operational programmes and lasting results for people.
Africa's challenge is therefore not only to mobilize more resources. Countries must also strengthen their ability to prepare robust and bankable projects, document needs, demonstrate expected results and connect national priorities more effectively with financing mechanisms. Better territorial knowledge helps target interventions, monitor progress, reduce uncertainty and reinforce the confidence of financial partners.
Data must inform decisions, decisions must guide investment, and investment must produce measurable results.
The Great Green Wall: working at scale
The Great Green Wall illustrates this African challenge. At least $33 billion is needed to achieve its objectives by 2030, while more than $19 billion was announced by partners when its Accelerator was launched. The central question is now how to transform these commitments into coordinated, financeable and monitored programmes rooted in country priorities.
The African Union's Great Green Wall Strategy 2024-2034 provides a renewed framework linking continental ambition with national and local realities. It places restoration within a broader approach combining water security, climate resilience, territorial development, livelihoods and investment.
At COP 17, OSS contributed to discussions on mobilizing investment and implementing the new strategy. The Observatory supports a gradual shift from dispersed projects to integrated programmes capable of working at scale while strengthening impact monitoring and demonstration.
This vision reflects a wider African priority: land restoration cannot be separated from water management, biodiversity, agriculture, pastoralism or climate adaptation. The same territories often concentrate these challenges, so responses must be more integrated.
OSS, an interface between knowledge, territories and investment
The OSS contribution to COP 17 is grounded in this approach. As a Regional Support Hub for the UNCCD 2026 reporting cycle, and through tools such as MISLAND, the Observatory helps countries make monitoring and reporting a useful source of information for planning, project design and investment mobilization, rather than an administrative end in itself.
OSS also draws on its experience in Earth observation, geospatial systems, shared waters and transboundary aquifers to bring science, decision-making and regional cooperation closer together. In shared basins and aquifers, common knowledge can strengthen trust, dialogue and coordinated resource management.
The Observatory therefore acts as an interface, connecting territorial realities with public policy, data with decisions, and national priorities with financing opportunities.
After Ulaanbaatar: demonstrate that solutions work
For Africa, COP 17 is not an endpoint. The coming years must focus on demonstration and scale: restoring more land, strengthening water security, supporting agricultural and pastoral systems, improving monitoring and warning arrangements, and converting financial commitments into effective investment.
The true outcome of Ulaanbaatar will therefore be measured less by the number of decisions adopted or the amounts announced than by the changes actually delivered across territories.
In this continuity, OSS intends to keep supporting African countries and help make the Great Green Wall a genuine driver of restoration, resilience and development.