UN appoints new head of anti-desertification body

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Monique Barbut of France as the new executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for a three-year term. This was announced on Wednesday in a press statement released by UNCCD in Namibian capital Windhoek, where the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD opened on Monday. "Barbut has been committed to the issues of desertification, land degradation and drought through her previous work as Chief Executive Officer of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF)," the statement reads. "During her tenure, the Fourth GEF Assembly amended the GEF Instrument to list UNCCD among the treaties for which the facility acts in the role of financial mechanism. The GEF, as financial mechanism of the UNCCD, directly contributes to the implementation of the Convention, including its Ten-year (2008–2018) Strategic Plan and Framework, adopted by the Conference of Parties during the Eighth Session," it said. Barbut takes over from Luc Gnacadja, whose term ends on September 30, 2013.