CSOs reject UN green agenda over gender participation

By Samuel Ogunsona

Civil society organizations have rejected the official agenda of the 17th UN Convention to Combat Desertification conference.

The CSOs accused negotiators of removing key items on gender, civil society participation, and coordination across global environmental treaties.

UNCCD COP17 opened Monday, 17 of August, 2026, in Ulaanbaatar with a focus on “action and implementation.”

But the UNCCD Civil Society Organization Panel said the agenda was adopted without issues central to communities facing desertification and drought.

“UNCCD COP17 is being promoted as a COP of action and implementation, however, without the essential role of people and organizations working on the ground, action will never be possible,” the CSO Panel said.

According to the Panel, the removal of agenda items on civil society participation, gender, and synergies across the three Rio Conventions undermines the very groups delivering solutions at community level.

“Local communities, Indigenous Peoples, farmers, pastoralists, women, youth, researchers and civil society organizations bring knowledge, experience and solutions from the territories where land degradation, desertification and drought are being addressed every day,” the Panel stated.

The CSO Panel, which represents accredited observer groups from the Convention’s five regions, said the decision “serves to erode the CSO engagement within the convention, threatens inclusivity and also prevents real action and implementation on the ground.”

“Civil society represents the communities hardest hit by desertification, drought and climate change: they face these realities on a daily basis and also have many of the answers to combatting desertification which have been developed over generations. To exclude them, is not only concerning, but is also a direct attempt to erode and remove CSO influence and advocacy in decision making processes,” the Panel added.

The group stressed that climate and land challenges cannot be solved by governments alone.

“One organisation, one scientist, one negotiator, one nation cannot tackle the biggest issue that is facing a generation. We need a community, and the CSO community is vibrant, thriving and also here to support policymakers in making decisions that will benefit people and the planet for future generations. To ignore them would be in direct contravention of what the United Nations stand for.”

The Panel is calling on parties and negotiators to reinstate the three items to the COP17 agenda.