World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, Theme 2023

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

Every year on June 17th, the World Day to battle Desertification and Drought is marked to raise public awareness of global efforts to battle desertification. The event provides an opportunity to acknowledge that land degradation neutrality is attainable via problem-solving, significant community involvement, and cooperation at all levels. “Her Land. Her Rights” is the focus of the 2023 Desertification and Drought Day.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought History

Since 1995, the 17th of June has been designated as the International Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. In order to raise public awareness of the problem and promote the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), particularly in regions affected by extreme drought or desertification, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 17th as the “World Day to Combat Desertification” in the year 1994.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2023

In order to achieve the interconnected global goals of gender equality and land degradation neutrality by 2030 and to promote a number of other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the focus of the 2023 Desertification and Drought Day will be on women’s land rights.  According to the seminal UNCCD research “The Differentiated Impacts of Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought on Women and Men,” gender equality is still a work in progress everywhere in the globe.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2023 Theme

This year’s Desertification and Drought Day, observed globally on June 17, focuses on women’s land rights as a crucial component of achieving the related global goals of gender equality and land degradation neutrality by 2030 under the theme “Her Land. Her Rights.”

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2023 Objective

With these Desertification and Drought Day 2023 objectives, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will reaffirm its commitment to gender equality.

• Highlight women’s contributions to sustainable land management and the broader SDGs;
• Raise awareness of the disproportionate impact of desertification, land degradation, and drought on women and girls and the barriers they face in decision-making on land issues;
• Raise global support for advancing land rights for women and girls around the world.

Desertification and Drought Day will be observed globally this year at the UN headquarters in New York, with activities occurring everywhere.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought & India’s Performance

According to the State of India’s Environment (SoE) report, 26 out of 29 Indian states saw a rise in the rate of desertification during the years 2003–2005 and 2011–2013. 21 of the 78 districts with a high risk of drought that the Indian Space Research Organization assessed have more than 50% of their area in a desertified state. More than 80% of the country’s degraded land is located in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana.

India has pledged to repair 21 million hectares of damaged land by the year 2030. The main reasons for India’s desertification are as follows:

• Water erosion [10.98 %]
• Wind erosion [5.55 %]
• Human-made/settlements [0.69 %]
• Vegetation degradation [8.91 %]
• Salinity [1.12 %]
• Others [2.07 %]

Despite this, the desert development plan (DDP) is a low priority, as seen by the government’s use of funding to create drinking water schemes. No budgetary funding has been allocated to the initiative during 2018–19. A 2018 assessment by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) revealed that since 2012, funds earmarked for developing drinking water systems under the DDP regions have remained idle.

According to the research, large amounts were still unused in states like Rajasthan, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh as of March 2017. Furthermore, several states did not deliver their share of DDP funds from 2015 to 2017 due to a change in financing arrangements in April 2015.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought Significance

This day is significant because it aims to recapture lost territory. Additionally, three-quarters of the world’s ice-free land has thawed due to the constant demand for food, raw materials, roads, and houses. There should be an urgent need to recover from the epidemic and safeguard people’s and the planet’s long-term existence in order to repair these damages.

The United Nations estimates that at least 3.2 billion people are negatively impacted by land degradation. On the other hand, restoring damaged land improves food security, increases employment, income, and economic resilience. Land development affects climate change directly, resulting in less global warming, which has become one of the major sources of concern in recent years.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2023 Key messages

Desertification, land degradation and drought disproportionately impact women and girls, as they often do not have access to and control of land resources. They are most affected by reduced agricultural yields and increased water scarcity. In the vast majority of countries, women have unequal and limited access and control to land. In many regions, they remain subject to discriminatory laws and practices that impede their right to inherit, as well as their access to services and resources.

When women are empowered, entire families and communities benefit. In addition to being on the frontlines of land degradation and climate change impacts, women can also be at the forefront of global efforts to restore land back to health and boost drought resilience. Gender-responsive land restoration is a pathway to reduce poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Investing in women’s equal access to land and associated assets is a direct investment in their future and the future of humanity. Securing women’s land rights can help advance global gender equality and land restoration goals, and contribute to the achievement of broader Sustainable Development Goals.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought UPSC

Despite having a significant stake in the health of the land, women frequently lack authority over it. Women confront tremendous obstacles in obtaining land rights anywhere in the world, which limits their capacity to flourish and succeed. Women are frequently the ones who suffer the most when the environment degrades and water becomes scarce. Equal access for women to land and related resources is an investment in both their future and the future of humanity.

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