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As the 2026 United Nations Water Conference approaches, the preparatory meeting in Dakar, Senegal, marked a decisive step in bringing water back to the heart of the global agenda. On the sidelines of this meeting, Africa Renewal spoke with Dr Birguy Lamizana Diallo, Head of Global Policies, Advocacy and Regional Cooperation at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Water must be available to all people, but it also has to be managed sustainably. How can this challenge be met when the resource is limited?
There is no life without water. It is the first thing we touch every morning—in our daily, cultural, and religious practices. There is no such thing as a “dry” activity. But water is a finite resource that circulates in a closed cycle. We therefore have to learn to manage it sustainably.
Sustainability means providing water in sufficient quantity and quality, while using it efficiently. This concerns agriculture, for example through more precise irrigation techniques, but also industry, cities, wastewater management and reuse. Sustainable Development Goal 6 had the merit, for the first time, of taking all these dimensions into account: access, quality, wastewater management, efficiency, and ecosystem protection.
The Dakar preparatory meeting made it possible to examine SDG 6 in all its complexity and to reflect on how public policies, technologies, and the various actors—including the private sector—can fully play their role.
What specific contribution does UNCCD bring to the global debate on water?
UNCCD is sometimes seen as the most discreet of the Rio Conventions, but it plays a fundamental role. There can be no thriving biodiversity without restored lands, and no climate resilience without soils capable of storing water and carbon.
Our mandate is to restore degraded land and support countries in achieving land degradation neutrality. Out of 197 Parties, the majority have committed to this path. Water security, disaster risk reduction, and the prevention of conflicts linked to resources depend directly on the health of the land.
The Dakar preparatory meeting was essential in underscoring this inseparable link between sustainable water management and sustainable land management, in view of the United Nations Water Conference [later in the year] in Abu Dhabi.
Financing remains a major obstacle, especially in the most vulnerable countries. How can this constraint be overcome?
Today, the private sector contributes only about 2% of financing for the water sector, and around 6% for land restoration. That is insufficient. States cannot do everything on their own. We need to mobilize all actors and show that restoring land and protecting water is not only a burden, but also an economic opportunity.
Land restoration, for example, can be a real economic model if the conditions are in place and risks are shared. Multilateral development banks have a key role to play in reducing risks and encouraging private investment. Water and land are inseparable: water flows over land, and there is no quality water without healthy lands covered with vegetation.
How can Indigenous Peoples and local communities be fully integrated into water decision-making processes?
These communities hold valuable traditional and ancestral knowledge. They understand water cycles, flood-prone areas, and the rhythms of floods and droughts. In regions such as the Inner Niger Delta, this knowledge has enabled people for centuries to live in balance with the environment.
At the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), we have gradually institutionalized this participation, notably through dedicated caucuses for women, local communities, and youth. Techniques such as za? pits or half-moons, widely used in West Africa, show that this know-how works. Scientists then come to explain the mechanisms, but innovation often comes from the field.
We cannot move towards sustainable management of water and land without listening to and integrating these voices.
You are recognized as a field-based professional with an exceptional journey, moving from scientific research to coordinating major international programmes. How does this path shape your approach to water and land issues?
My background is indeed rooted in several disciplines, and above all in extensive field experience and in dialogue between science, public policy, and local communities.
This path has enabled me to understand both the vertical dimension—the formation of soils, rocks, aquifers, underground resources—and the horizontal, multidimensional dimension of ecosystems, made up of interactions, symbioses, and links between living organisms, water, and land. We often think some components are inanimate, but in reality there is extraordinary life in soils and in water systems.
I worked as a geologist in mining, on resource exploration, then as an engineer on dams, irrigated areas, and boreholes. Later, my work on wetlands was a turning point. It allowed me to work in Djoudj National Park, the Saloum Delta, along the Senegal River, all the way to Diawling National Park and the Banc d’Arguin in Mauritania, but also in Cameroon, Mali, and the Inner Niger Delta. There, I understood how essential these ecosystems are—not only for fauna and flora, but also for the communities that depend on them.
All of this shapes an interdisciplinary and deeply human approach. When you engage with communities, practitioners, scientists, or decision-makers, you learn to put yourself in the other person’s place. This ability is essential for designing effective policies for managing water and land.