Executive Director of the Partnership Initiative for Sustainable Land Management (PISLM), Dr. Ronen Francis, has called for stronger national data ecosystems to support countries in delivering timely, reliable and nationally owned reporting under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Dr. Francis made the call during a joint CRIC/CST plenary session at UNCCD COP17, focused on improving the procedures, quality and formats of information submitted through the Convention’s reporting process. The panel discussion, titled “Support Hubs for Reporting and Technical Advisors: Connecting Global Methodologies with Regional Expertise,” examined how the UNCCD’s decentralized support model can better connect global methodologies with regional expertise and national priorities.
While the 2026 reporting process represents an important step toward more data-driven and Party-led monitoring of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), drought and other elements of the Convention’s reporting framework, the UNCCD Secretariat, together with regional and technical partners, is supporting countries through a network of Support Hubs and Technical Advisors providing technical backstopping, capacity development, methodological guidance and context-specific assistance.
In his intervention, Dr. Francis emphasized that national reporting should be viewed not simply as a compliance requirement, but as an opportunity to strengthen national ownership, institutional capacity and long-term management of environmental data.
“Reporting must ultimately strengthen countries’ ability to understand, manage and use their own data. International and regional support is important, but sustainable reporting systems require investment in national institutions, technologies and skills so that countries can maintain these processes over the long term,” Dr. Francis said.
He highlighted the importance of developing national systems capable of supporting the full data cycle-from collection and management to analysis and dissemination-while ensuring that international methodologies are appropriately adapted to national circumstances.
Dr. Francis also pointed to the potential of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital technologies to improve the timeliness, quality and accessibility of information used to monitor land degradation and drought.
The PISLM Executive Director further stressed that effective regional support should extend beyond central institutions to include local stakeholders, technical agencies and private-sector partners, where appropriate. Stronger collaboration among these actors can help ensure that scientific advances and technical tools are translated into practical national data systems and policy decisions.
The panel brought together representatives of seven UNCCD Support Hubs, alongside Technical Advisory institutions including the Conservation International, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), Apacheta and the European Space Agency on behalf of the Group on Earth Observations Land Degradation Neutrality Initiatives (GEO-LDN).
Discussions highlighted the diverse technical approaches being used to support national reporting, including open data tools, satellite observations, artificial intelligence, geospatial technologies and data dissemination services.
The session also highlighted progress under the current support framework, including seven regional capacity-building workshops reaching 344 participants from 155 countries, while more than 130 countries are receiving support through related programmes, including EU-implemented projects and an FAO pilot project, with financial support from the Global Environment Facility and implementation support from UNEP under the Global Support Program.
For PISLM, the discussions reinforced the importance of a reporting system that is scientifically sound, context-responsive and grounded in national realities, while remaining consistent with global standards.
As countries prepare their 2026 UNCCD national reports, strengthening national data ecosystems will be critical to ensuring that reporting generates information that is not only comparable internationally, but also useful for evidence-based decision-making, sustainable land management and long-term resilience.
