The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa, came into force in 1996 and now has 181 parties.

It is the only legally binding international agreement that combines environment and development with sustainable land management. In particular, it focuses on the world's arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas, where the most vulnerable ecosystems and people are located.

Desertification is not the natural expansion of existing deserts but the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It is a gradual process of loss of soil productivity and thinning of plant cover due to human activities and climatic variations such as prolonged droughts and floods. Although the construction process can take centuries, plant cover can degrade and disappear within a few seasons. Overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation practices are among the factors of degradation that depend on humans.
Drought is considered to be one of the most serious natural disasters, causing short and long-term economic and social losses for millions of people around the world.

The Convention requires the parties to develop national action programmes against desertification, harmonized at the regional level by bilateral or multilateral agreements.
The Convention stresses the need to involve local communities and NGOs in these programmes. It calls for the mobilization of national or international resources, public or private, to finance the fight against desertification.

However, many countries in the world facing the consequences of an intense drought still do not have a comprehensive action plan at the first signs of the phenomenon appearing. Drought and water scarcity, interrelated conditions that worsen each other, can cause significant setbacks for the most disadvantaged populations.

In 2018, UNCCD started developing national drought plans in over 40 countries. She launched a second call for 30 more countries to join the drought initiative in March 2019.