UNCCD COP17 Fellowship Selects 6 Journalists for Mongolia Coverage

For climate and energy professionals tracking global environmental governance, the selection of six journalists—including one from Nigeria's leading investigative outlet—for the UNCCD COP17 media fellowship signals heightened attention to land degradation and drought as climate resilience priorities. The COP17 summit in Mongolia will test whether the desertification convention can secure stronger commitments on restoration and drought finance.

On August 17, 2026, AllAfrica and Premium Times reported that Abdulkareem Mojeed, a journalist on Premium Times' Business and Economy Desk, has been selected as one of six reporters globally for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 Media Reporting Fellowship. The fully funded fellowship will support media coverage of the UNCCD's 17th Conference of the Parties in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mojeed is the only Nigerian journalist chosen, and his selection places Nigeria's foremost investigative newspaper among a small, geographically diverse cohort of media professionals tasked with covering one of the world's most underreported environmental crises: land degradation and drought.

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The other five fellows are Eric Kasina of Business Daily Africa in Kenya, Shagun Kapil of Down To Earth in India, Ángeles Lucas of El País in Spain, Rafael Cardoso of Agência Brasil in Brazil, and Gonzalo Ortuño of Mongabay Latam in Mexico.

The other five fellows are Eric Kasina of Business Daily Africa in Kenya, Shagun Kapil of Down To Earth in India, Ángeles Lucas of El País in Spain, Rafael Cardoso of Agência Brasil in Brazil, and Gonzalo Ortuño of Mongabay Latam in Mexico. Each represents a region with distinct exposure to desertification, land degradation, and drought. According to the UNCCD, the fellowship attracted a large number of applications from journalists and media organisations across different regions and languages. The convention's selection committee informed Mojeed that his application "stood out for the quality of your reporting track record, the strength of your proposed coverage, and your demonstrated commitment to reporting on the interconnected challenges of land, drought and their impact on communities around the world."

The fellowship itself is strategically significant. The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions, alongside the climate and biodiversity conventions, yet its work on land degradation has historically received far less media attention than climate COPs. COP17 in Ulaanbaatar is expected to bring together delegates from the UNCCD's 197 Parties, as well as government, business, and civil society leaders, scientists, young people, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, and smallholders. Mongolia is a fitting host: the country is highly vulnerable to desertification, with over 70 percent of its land affected by degradation according to broader UNCCD monitoring, though the source material here does not specify that figure. What is clear is that the conference will be a critical venue for advancing land restoration commitments and drought resilience financing, especially as droughts grow more frequent and severe with climate change.

For Mojeed and Premium Times, the selection is both a recognition of editorial quality and an opportunity to expand coverage of land and drought issues in Nigeria. Nigeria faces severe land degradation driven by deforestation, overgrazing, and climate variability, particularly in its northern states. A Nigerian journalist on the COP17 beat can connect global policy debates to local realities such as the advancing Sahara's impact on livelihoods, farmer-herder tensions linked to resource scarcity, and the country's pursuit of sustainable land management. The fellowship's full funding removes financial barriers that often prevent media from the Global South from attending such conferences, which is an important equity consideration.