The Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC) contributed to a COP17 side event examining how research networks can strengthen action on land degradation neutrality (LDN) and advance synergies among the Rio Conventions.
Held on 25 August at the UNCCD COP17 venue, the session was convened by the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). Titled “Strengthening Dryland Research Networks to Accelerate Land Degradation Neutrality and Enhance Synergies among the Rio Conventions,” the session brought together researchers, practitioners and representatives of international research and knowledge networks to discuss how evidence can move more effectively from research into policy and practice.
WLRC contributed through Programme Support Manager Gelila Tesfu, who also participated on behalf of AfriOCAT, the African Regional Chapter of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT). Launched in 2025 in collaboration with WOCAT, AUDA-NEPAD and WLRC, which is also its host institution, AfriOCAT works to strengthen sustainable land management across Africa through knowledge sharing, capacity development, uptake of context-specific solutions and evidence-informed policy.
The point that ran through the whole session was that the challenge is not simply producing more knowledge, but ensuring that knowledge gets used. Participants highlighted the importance of involving policymakers, practitioners and local communities from the start of the research process, building in dialogue and co-production, and developing knowledge products that different audiences can actually use.
Gelila set out four conditions for stronger connections between scientific evidence and local, Indigenous and practitioner knowledge:
- Challenge-led, interdisciplinary research that starts from real-world problems rather than disciplinary boundaries;
- Co-design from the outset, with communities, practitioners and policymakers shaping research questions and solutions together;
- Continuous dialogue that allows evidence to be tested, challenged and refined by the people who use it; and
- More accessible knowledge products — practitioner-facing materials, visual outputs and other formats that support decision-making alongside conventional scientific and policy publications.
This complementarity is also central to AfriOCAT’s role in Africa: strengthening sustainable land management knowledge exchange, building capacity, accelerating the uptake of context-specific solutions, and using evidence to support policy and action at multiple levels.
Participants also flagged a harder problem: many initiatives and “living labs” struggle to survive once the projects that started them end. The session’s central message was that research networks should be viewed as long-term knowledge infrastructure, rather than short-term project arrangements — valuable not only for the evidence they produce, but also for the relationships, capacities and mechanisms they sustain.
This points to the importance of sustainable financing, institutional ownership and durable links between research, policy and implementation.
For WLRC and AfriOCAT, the discussion reinforced a clear point: strong research and knowledge networks can help connect evidence to action and support more integrated responses to land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss.
As COP17 continues, WLRC and AfriOCAT will continue to engage in discussions that strengthen partnerships, deepen knowledge exchange and create pathways for translating research into impact.