By Iffat Ara Sharmeen,
24 August, 2026
Friendship participated in COP17, the UNCCD's 17th Conference of the Parties, held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17 to 28 August. It was Friendship's first time joining the Desertification COP, which had the theme "Restoring Land, Restoring Hope" this year. COP17 was therefore an opportunity for Friendship to raise awareness about Bangladesh's emerging land degradation challenges, engage global stakeholders, and learn from international experience and partnerships that can strengthen action at home.
Friendship founder Runa Khan and Senior Director and Head of Climate Action Kazi Amdadul Hoque represented the organisation at the conference, where governments, UN agencies, civil society groups, and grassroots organisations from around the world were present. Khan spoke with esteemed individuals and groups to raise awareness of Bangladesh's current land restoration work through the lens of Friendship and discussed potential ways of collaborating.
Scaling Hope
Runa Khan (second from left) with H.E. Rol Reiland (left), Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to China and Virginie Gilbert (third from left), Attache to the Directorate of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg, touching upon the long-standing relationship between Luxembourg as a development partner of Bangladesh. Kazi Amdadul Hoque (right) was also with them during the meeting. © Friendship
Friendship also took part in a side event titled Scaling Hope: Local
Voices Driving Land Restoration and Resilience, organised by the Brahma Kumaris World
Spiritual University and the Dhrubotara
Youth Development Foundation (DYDF). Kazi Amdadul Hoque participated in the
event as a speaker along with Amiya Prapan Chakra Borty, CEO of DYDF, Qingyun
Dia, FAO Representative in
Mongolia, Noel Oettlé, Coordinator of Drynet, and Aneta Loj, Director of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University.
During the session, Runa Khan delivered a virtual address centred on Molida, an eighteen-year-old flood volunteer trained by Friendship, who built a raft of banana plants to carry twenty-four women and children to safety during a storm. "Hope does not remove difficulties," Runa said, "but it gives the courage to act."
Participants at the session that the Friendship delegation spoke at during CCD COP17. © Friendship
Kazi Amdadul Hoque, joining the panel in person, grounded that message in practice. On restoration financing, he cautioned: "Carbon should not be the purpose for restoration. It's a by-product. Restoration is just to make sure that nature and people live together with harmony, with peace, with love, and care." Speaking on the Sundarbans, he described how communities that raise their own seeds into saplings feel a sense of ownership that funding alone cannot create: "When we consider people to be beneficiaries, it means you are undermining them. If they feel like owners, if they feel like partners, then they get involved and have agency over their own fate."
Looking Ahead
Land
degradation in Bangladesh is a result of multiple climate issues, from rising salinity, drought,
and coastal erosion to coastal erosion and cyclones, all reshaping the delta
and pushing communities toward displacement. Friendship's first COP17 was about
listening and connecting, and sharing field experiences. Bringing Bangladesh's
frontline experience to a global stage could inspire other countries to take
local action inspired by global voices.
Aneta Loj, Director of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (left) with Runa Khan (second from left) and Kazi Amdadul Hoque (right). © Friendship