11 September 2019: The tenth day of the 14th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 14) to UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was dedicated to drought preparedness. The UNCCD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) co-organized the ‘Day,’ during which participants presented and discussed the success and challenges of the current tools, methodologies and policies supporting drought preparedness across the globe.

On the Day, high-level participants encouraged swift action. Rene Castro, Assistant Director-General, Climate, Biodiversity, Land and Water Department, FAO, emphasized the importance of being proactive, stating, “We need to prepare, predict, plan together to stop drought becoming famine.” In his opening remarks, Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD, Executive Secretary said that, “Drought is a major obstacle to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 15. We need to move faster in our fight against drought.”

The UNCCD used the occasion to launch an interactive Drought Toolbox that serves as a platform for developing national drought plans and taking a proactive approach to drought management. The UNCCD developed the Toolbox under the Drought Initiative and in close partnership with WMO, FAO, GWP, National Drought Mitigation Center of the University of Nebraska, and the UN Environment Programme’s Centre for Water and Environment (UNEP-DHI).

The platform offers access to a host of drought resilience building resources, and the toolbox is one of the three focus areas of a Drought Initiative launched following a request by COP 13 to the UNCCD Secretariat. The Drought Initiative focuses on (1) drought preparedness systems; (2) regional efforts to reduce drought vulnerability and risk; and (3) a toolbox to boost the resilience of people and ecosystems to drought. Its partners include WMO, FAO, GWP, the Union for the Mediterranean, UNEP-DHI and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). [IISD RS coverage of UNCCD COP 14] [UNCCD Press Release]