Background Note on the UN Sand and Dust Storm (SDS) Coalition

Background Note on the UN Sand and Dust Storm (SDS) Coalition 2 August Summary: This background note has been prepared by the Environment Management Group (EMG) Secretariat as an information document in advance of the planned "SDS Day", including the meeting of the SDS Coalition on 6 September in the margins of the UNCCD's 14th Conference of Parties (CoP) in New Delhi, India, from 2 to 13 Septembe. [...] Background UNEP's Environmental Management Group (EMG; see www.unemg.org) was requested in September 2018, by the initiative of the Executive Director of UNEP and the agreement of the EMG Senior Officials, to help to establish, and provide preparatory support for, the SDS Coalition and its emerging agenda. [...] The origins of the current SDS Coalition lie in the UN General Assembly resolution 72/225 of September 2017, that invited the Executive Director of UNEP to "consider initiating an inter- agency process involving relevant entities of the UN system1...to prepare a global response to sand and dust storms, including a situation analysis, a strategy and an action plan, which could result in a UN system. [...] In June, the Executive Secretary of the UNCCD Ibrahim Thiaw suggested in a letter to the Executive Director of UNEP Inger Andersen the organization of an "SDS Day" (on 6 Sept.) as an awareness-raising event on the side of the UNCCD CoP-14 in New Delhi. [...] The SDS Day will also include an event to launch the Coalition, followed up by a presentation by the Executive Director of UNEP, as Chair of the EMG, on the Coalition to the high-level segment of the UNCCD CoP on 9-10 September.