A workshop on drought monitoring and early warning organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Sri Lankan Ministry of Technology and Research focused on strategies and sharing of good practices to reduce the negative impacts of agricultural drought.
Recommendations from the workshop will support strengthening of the ESCAP Regional Drought Mechanism as well as national disaster management plans in the Asia-Pacific region.
1 July 2014: A workshop on drought monitoring and early warning organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Sri Lankan Ministry of Technology and Research focused on strategies and sharing of good practices to reduce the negative impacts of agricultural drought. Recommendations from the workshop will support strengthening of the ESCAP Regional Drought Mechanism as well as national disaster management plans in the Asia-Pacific region.
The regional workshop on ‘Space Technology: Applications for Drought Monitoring and Early Warning,’ described by the organizers as a milestone event on the topic, was held on 1-2 July in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The workshop, which brought together government and UN agency representatives and regional experts, sought to address challenges relating to access to scientific information and knowledge still faced by many countries in the region. Participants, inter alia, examined practical ways to improve early warning, and stressed the importance of cooperation across ministries and regional initiatives.
The workshop focused on providing guidance for strengthening the effectiveness of ESCAP’s Regional Drought Mechanism, launched in 2013 to enhance agricultural monitoring and early warning-related capacity of the region’s governments through the provision of satellite data, drought products and specialized training. Another aim of the meeting was to give recommendations relating to national disaster management plans for the Mechanism’s six pilot countries: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The pilot countries of the ESCAP Regional Drought Mechanism are supported by two regional nodes, which supply satellite images, services, expert training and capacity development with the objective of enhancing: access to space-based data; preparedness and response capacity; institutional coordination; country-level policies; and regional and South-South cooperation and networks.
The ESCAP Regional Drought Mechanism, supported by the governments of China and India, is the flagship program of the ESCAP Regional Space Applications Programme for Sustainable Development (RESAP). [UN News Article] [ESCAP Press Release] [Land Policy & Practice article on ESCAP Regional Drought Mechanism] [UNESCAP RESAP Website]