COP17: Africa urges funding that puts women at centre

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

Financing land restoration and drought resilience took centre stage on Monday as ministers, development partners, investors, businesses and civil society gathered at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 for Finance Day.

The discussions produced $1.3 billion in new and pipeline finance for land restoration and drought resilience across 23 countries. Of this, $644.5 million is new finance, with $216.4 million already confirmed and moving towards implementation.

For Africa, participants stressed that closing the financing gap must also mean changing how restoration investments are designed and who can access them.

Dr Susan Chomba, Director of Vital Landscapes for Africa at the World Resources Institute, is among scientists at COP17 highlighting African experiences in landscape restoration, including through the Africa Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative.

She is also one of 35 experts on the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface, which is providing technological advice to the convention. Dr Chomba said women should be considered in the design of new financing mechanisms.

“For restoration to be effective and inclusive, women must be beneficiaries of finance and have a voice in how investments are designed and implemented,” she said.

The discussions also placed rangelands at the centre of the new investment push. The Rangelands Flagship Initiative, valued at $1.2 billion across 45 projects, was launched in Ulaanbaatar during the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026. It is the largest single mobilisation for rangelands in the history of the UNCCD.

Rangelands cover more than half of the world's land surface and support around two billion people. Yet up to half of these ecosystems are degraded or at risk. Rangelands generate estimated gains of $21 trillion to $47 trillion annually. Restoration returns $4 to $6 for every dollar invested, with returns reaching as high as $36 when wider public benefits are included.

For Kenya, the financing debate comes as the country confronts drought, degraded rangelands and declining land productivity. Environment CS Deborah Barasa said restoration must be treated as an economic and development priority.

“The challenge is no longer how to restore our landscapes. It is how to finance restoration at scale and sustain those investments for decades. We must use public finance to unlock private capital and make restoration a long-term investment in climate resilience, natural capital and sustainable development,” she said.

The minister pointed to the Kenya Watershed Services Improvement Project as an effort to move from fragmented interventions towards a coordinated restoration.

The project combines policy reform, institutional strengthening, sustainable financing, watershed restoration, biodiversity conservation, livelihoods and digital monitoring.

The new commitments come as development banks and climate funds seek to make land restoration attractive to investors.

A dialogue involving the World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, the Global Environment Facility and Green Climate Fund highlighted the need for guarantees, first-loss capital, index-based insurance and project preparation facilities.

COP17 President Batmunkh Battsetseg, who is also Mongolia's Foreign Affairs Minister said: “Effective restoration of land must be grounded in the knowledge and experience of local communities and indigenous people.”

As Finance Day closed, the message was that success of the commitments would be measured by whether the money reaches the people and landscapes that need it.

The writer is a climate action enthusiast and a communications specialist at Windward Communications Consultancy.

Reporting originally appeared via Business Daily. Read the full source for additional context.