What is/are the importance/importances of the ‘United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’?

1. It aims to promote effective action through innovative national programmes and supportive international partnerships.

2. It has a special/particular focus on South Asia and North Africa regions, and its Secretariat facilitates the allocation of major portion of financial resources to these regions.

3. It is committed to bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating the desertification.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

The correct answer is 1 and 3 only.

To understand why, let us carefully analyze each of the three statements about the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which was adopted in 1994 and entered into force in 1996. It is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment, development, and sustainable land management.

Statement 1: "It aims to promote effective action through innovative national programmes and supportive international partnerships."
This statement is CORRECT. One of the core operational frameworks of the UNCCD is built on this very principle. The Convention encourages affected country Parties — especially developing nations — to formulate National Action Programmes (NAPs) that incorporate locally specific, innovative strategies to combat desertification and land degradation. These NAPs are complemented by Sub-regional and Regional Action Programmes, all working in concert with international support and partnerships. The Convention fundamentally rests on the idea that effective global action requires a combination of ground-level national initiative and strong international cooperation for finance, technology transfer, and capacity building.

Statement 2: "It has a special/particular focus on South Asia and North Africa regions, and its Secretariat facilitates the allocation of major portion of financial resources to these regions."
This statement is INCORRECT, and this is the key discriminator in this question. The UNCCD does give special attention to Africa, as the African continent was the most severely affected by desertification at the time of the Convention's drafting. However, the Convention's focus is on Africa, not "South Asia and North Africa" as a combined pair. Furthermore, while there are Annexes for various regions (Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Mediterranean, and Central and Eastern Europe), the UNCCD does not specify that its Secretariat facilitates allocation of a major portion of financial resources exclusively to any specific pair of regions in the manner described. The claim about "South Asia and North Africa" together receiving a major portion of financial resources is factually inaccurate as per the Convention's framework. Hence, Statement 2 is wrong.

Statement 3: "It is committed to a bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating the desertification."
This statement is CORRECT. The bottom-up approach is one of the most celebrated and defining features of the UNCCD, distinguishing it from many other international environmental conventions. The Convention explicitly emphasizes the active involvement of local communities, NGOs, and grassroots organizations in the design and implementation of national action programmes. This participatory philosophy recognizes that local populations — who are the most directly affected by land degradation and desertification — possess invaluable traditional knowledge and must be central actors (not merely passive beneficiaries) in any effective solution. This is enshrined throughout the text of the Convention and its implementation guidelines.

Conclusion:
Since Statement 1 ✔ and Statement 3 ✔ are correct, and Statement 2 ✘ is incorrect, the right answer is definitively 1 and 3 only.