World Deserts Foundation (Fondation Deserts du Monde) is an Algerian non-governmental and intergovernmental[1] organization. Its headquarters are located in Ghardaia, Algeria.[2] Its mission is to promote sustainable development of desert regions.[3]
World Deserts Foundation is one of the organizations participating on a continuing basis as the observer in the United Nations Economic and Social Council.[4]
The Foundation has been established in 2002. It has created by the Algerian politician and then Minister of Tourism, Cherif Rahmani, as means to receive a share of funds from United Nations Development Programme allocated to the project overseen by the Algerian Ministry of Culture, as well as to provide a government-friendly, but officially independent and non-government partner for the purpose of securing funding that is not meant to be allocated to public institutions.[5] For that reason, the Foundation has been criticized as a tool to misuse development funds and exclude proper civil society organizations who are less supportive of the government or have less ties to the current administration.