Media Stakeout: Amina Mohamed (UN Deputy Secretary-General) at UNCCD COP17

Thank you very much. And it's a real pleasure to be here. I want to start by thanking the government and the people of Mongolia for hosting this event. We have a president who is inspirational, a secretary general that is committed, a minister of environment that has been playing a central role in showing what and demonstrating what Mongolia can do. And then you have three women who are leading this process. So let's say we have gender equality. Both my colleagues, our president the COP and the executive secretary of UNCCD have really explained what this COP is about. COP17 is a COP of implementation. We know what the issues are. We have brought solutions to the table and we have also called for action in terms of the finance that is required for us to get to where we need to. We have a very big shortfall, a shortfall of over 278 million a year to invest, not to give, but to invest, to mobilize resources that invest in people, economies and prevention, prevention for the conflicts that we see in many of our rangelands where we have pastoralists at the center. Today is an important call to action. Our member states, the United Nations, are here to try to find a way through. We want to take the resolution beyond the words on paper into people's lives and to implement. And that means the means of implementation, the leadership, the courage to find the solutions around the means of implementation. And I'd like to give credit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who has really spearheaded a huge scale in financing and commitments to this particular issue. It is at the center of what we see in the triple planetary crisis. It matters for people, it matters for our environment, and it matters for economies. And so I very much look forward to taking out a success for implementation from the COP17 in Mongolia. Thank you.