This year’s Desertification and Drought Day focuses on one of the most urgent global challenges: restoring 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land and jumpstarting a trillion-dollar land restoration economy by 2030.
Our recent Economics of Drought Report underlined that picture: The global costs of drought damages mount to hefty US$307 billion per year but can be significantly lowered when systematically employing solutions for proactive drought management.
The report issues a strong call that economic and financial viability are key criteria for solutions to be successful for transforming current land and drought systems. However, the question remains how to scale-up real-world solutions to build drought resilience. Hence, this year’s Desertification and Drought Day marks the launch of the case study competition “Investing in Drought Resilience” organized under the UNCCD Communities of Learning and Practice (CLPs), supported by the UNCCD, Global Water Partnership, the ELD Initiative, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to address exactly this question – it calls for real-world solutions that offer strong economic and business cases and innovative financing mechanisms. The competition calls for practical case studies addressing either:
- Economic and business cases that apply economic analyses to inform and guide drought-related land interventions and policies or
Use of innovative financing mechanisms to support investments in sustainable land and drought management.
With implications for policy at all levels, this competition offers practitioners, experts, and scientists a unique opportunity to showcase the benefits of action versus the cost of inaction and to building drought-resilient communities facing increasing water scarcity and land degradation challenges.
Winners will have their travel costs covered to participate in UNCCD CRIC 23 in Panama in December 2025, where they will present their case studies at an official side event.
Submissions are open to government agencies, NGOs, local and youth communities, international organizations, research institutes, universities, and private sector actors active on land and drought management issues. Submissions may feature projects at any stage of maturity (pilot, ongoing, or completed), provided there is demonstrated relevance to one of the two thematic categories.
Do not miss this opportunity and join us in showcasing innovative solutions and building a drought-resilient future.
Find further information and submit your case study here: Case Study Competition: Investing in Drought Resilience | IWRM Action Hub