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This activity report provides an overview of the progress made in 2016 in implementing the Africa Climate Business Plan, a blueprint for climate action in Africa that the World Bank launched during the 21st meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in November 2015. 

This guidance document aims to provide a neutral comparison of the similarities and diferences between the UNFCCC REDD+ decisions and the Forest Carbon Partnership Carbon Fund’s Methodological Framework, as well as Germany’s REM Programme. There were two main objectives in conducting this type of comparative analysis. The first is to support countries to address their needs to consider these similarities and diferences, as well as potential implications of these, in order to design efective and coordinated REDD+ Emission Reduction Programmes in their countries. A second objective of the document is to serve as a useful input to support the GCF work on REDD+ RBPs / RBF.

This guidance documents addresses the absence of a common knowledge base as a reference for REDD+ practitioners. Its objectives are twofold, to: 1. Summarize the REDD+ decisions under the UNFCCC; and 2. Foster a common understanding of the REDD+ decisions under the UNFCCC.

This technical document provides information on safeguards requirements for REDD+, particularly in terms of safeguards information system (SIS) design in line with UNFCCC guidance. It highlights SIS design will be influenced by a country’s safeguards approach, including how a country has defined the goals, scope and scale of safeguards application, also whether the environmental and social benefits and risks of REDD+ actions have been assessed .

This technical document defines the approach of the UN-REDD Programme on gender equality and women’s empowerment. It can also assist partner countries to realize the gender equality provisions contained in international agreements (such as the climate change convention), including on safeguards, as well as contribute to Sustainable Development Goal #5 on gender equality. 

This activity report provides the first global scientific assessment of climate change impacts on World Heritage coral reefs. Soaring ocean temperatures in the past three years have subjected 21 of 29 World Heritage reefs to severe and/or repeated heat stress, and caused some of the worst bleaching ever observed at iconic sites. The analysis predicts that all 29 coral-containing World Heritage sites would cease to exist as functioning coral reef ecosystems by the end of this century under a business-as-usual emissions scenario.

This guidance document focuses on the need of access to healthy and productive land in order to achieve goal 15 “Life on Land”. Around 12 million hectares are lost each year to degradation processes. Achieving the overarching goals for sustainable development is unrealistic if we the ground for this generation and for generations to come is not secure.

This guidance document highlights the impact of current droughts as well as presenting projections for the future. It suggests that overcoming the prevailing paradigm of ‘reactive’ and ‘crisis-based’ approaches to drought and moving towards ‘proactive’ and ‘risk-based’ approaches will be indispensable to reducing the risks and mitigating the impacts of droughts, floods and other extreme weather events. 

This analytical document focues on the number of people negatively affected by land degradation is growing rapidly. Poor rural women in developing countries are critical to the survival of their families. But Crop failures, water scarcity and the migration of traditional crops are damaging rural livelihoods. Action to halt the loss of more fertile land must focus on households. At this level, land use is based on the roles assigned to men and women. 

This technical document focuses on the link between environmental change and carbon. When contained in greenhouse gases, carbon is a part of the problem. But in its organic form in the soil, carbon represents a major part of the solution. Increasing soil carbon builds a reservoir and helps to offset greenhouse gas emissions. It also contributes to the fertility of the soil, the foundation for all land-based  natural and agricultural ecosystems.

This technical document provides an overview of the scientific conceptual framework for land degradation neutrality (LDN). The conceptual framework creates a common understanding of the LDN objective and consistency in approaches to achieving LDN.

This guidance document provides scientifically-sound guidance for decisionmakers to help develop Sustainable Land Management (SLM)  strategies and related policies that promote synergies and address trade-offs between multiple objectives related to Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD), climate change mitigation and adaptation, and for creating an enabling environment to overcome possible barriers for selection and large-scale implementation of effective SLM practices considering local realities.

This technical document provides a scientifically-sound basis for understanding and implementing Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), and to inform the development of practical guidance for pursuing LDN and monitoring achievement of LDN target. The LDN conceptual framework focuses on the goal of LDN and the supporting processes required to deliver this goal, including biophysical and socio-economic aspects, and their interactions. 

 This report categorises and assesses a diverse array of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices and identifies their potential to create synergies between combating Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD), and achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation goals. It outlines potential solutions for combating desertification and land degradation. The design and benefits of SLM practices primarily depend on the highly variable local environmental, socioeconomic and cultural conditions.

This analytical document presents a vision for transforming the way in which we use and manage land. It underscores how land is key to human security and future wellbeing, the thread that holds together the fabric of society. It considers challenges we collectively face: from the pressures of population growth, climate change, urbanization, migration, and conflict to food, energy, and water insecurity. In all its dimensions, human security is increasingly fragile and in many parts of the world, land degradation and climate change are now recognized as contributing factors to a sense of growing instability.

This analytical document focuses on river deltas, as they are significant in the global economy and support large human populations and biodiversity. Deltas, due to their global relevance, require targeted attention and action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The impacts of climate change and sea level rise tend to be intensified by direct anthropogenic modifications (e.g. river control structures, coastal embankments, and upstream reservoirs) on the delta plain.

This reports showcases the way in which logistics and infrastructure play a crucial role in determining whether an extreme natural event turns into a disaster. During extreme natural events, a fragile infrastructure can have grave consequences for the local population, for whom it represents a direct threat. In addition, it delays the effective potential for those affected to help themselves and impedes humanitarian relief provided by the local authorities or from abroad.

This technical document provides cities with a methodology on how to collect data or information from key performance indicators (KPIs) for smart sustainable cities (SSC). This set of KPIs for SSC were developed to establish the criteria to evaluate ICT´s contributions in making cities smarter and more sustainable, and to provide cities with the means for self-assessments.

This guidance document provides an overview of how cities can use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also maps the case studies to the various international agreements as well as the SDGs.

This guidance document provides a study of the advantages of using ICT technologies to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 11, by facilitating the missing linkages that exist between sustainability policies and urban-planning practices through digitally-enabled urban actions.