Work Drought & Desertification Day

Creating excitement for a UN Observance Day

The United Nations General Assembly declared the annual observance of the “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” every 17 June to raise awareness on the issue and its global effects. We developed the branding, design and campaign assets globally used during the 2022 commemoration.

How do we create a theme that would align individual country efforts on the issue, and develop a design that would resonate with global audiences?

Background

The United Nations General Assembly declared 17 June to be the “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” to raise awareness on the issue and its global dimension. While each year the celebrations of Desertification and Drought Day (DDD) are hosted by one country officially, all nations have their own engagement activities to generate awareness and inspire action for drought mitigation and resilience. Our focus was to align and inspire countries to adopt one key theme globally, to maximize the reach of its message and reflect the international cooperation necessary to combat drought and desertification.

Objectives

Create

a unifying theme that could be adopted across countries, cultures and languages

Develop

a brandkit and produce media assets that would appeal to a global audience
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Approach

Our team analyzed some of the flagship publications of UNCCD to identify common messages and priority areas. We also reviewed the themes of past Desertification and Drought days to identify success measures, and build on previous campaigns. We determined that we needed a theme that conveyed optimism and hope, and for the key message to be conveyed in a non-technical way.

Our final proposed theme focused on drought resilience and collective action: “Rising from drought together”, in Spanish, “Superando Juntos las Sequías”, or in French, “Tous Ensemble pour Vaincre la Sécheresse”.

Outcome

The optimistic and collaborative spirit of the theme was then reflected through a logo and variety of graphic assets that could fit the diverse communication needs of countries, including posters, banners, social media graphics, animations, and postcards in different languages that focused on drought resilience. We also developed an accompanying visual identity manual so countries could standardize use of these materials.

The theme as well as the graphic assets were used in the lead up, during, and after Desertification and Drought Day not only in Spain, the host country of the activities that year, but all over the world.

The theme was used in various speeches from high-level staff from UNCCD, as well as political officers of various governments to raise awareness about the importance of taking action to be more drought resilience.

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