Desertif'actions 2019
International Civil Society Summit 2019
June 19-22 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
2019 International Civil Society Summit
The Fourth International Summit of Civil Society Actors Desertif’actions was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from June 19 to 22, 2019, and brought together more than 380 participants from some 40 countries, representing 230 multi-actor organizations: grassroots communities, NGOs, scientists, local governments, international organizations, private and public sector actors…
This fourth edition was co-organized with the Permanent Secretariat of NGOs in Burkina Faso, and was held for the first time on the African continent, in a country where “19% of the national territory is degraded and which has lost 2.4 million hectares of forest, becoming savannah in only 11 years” (SPONG). This situation reflects the reality of the Sahel and more broadly the rapid progression of land degradation in the world. In view of the negotiations of the 14th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in India in September 2019, the participants met to try to influence the decisions and put the land back at the center of concerns. To do this, a declaration integrating the contributions and recommendations from the three days of work was validated at the close of the Summit.