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A POSITIVE POLICY TURN FOR
PEOPLE MOST VULNERABLE
TO DROUGHT WORLDWIDE
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The international
community is developing policy
measures and
actions to help the people most
vulnerable to drought to take early
action to avoid loss of
life, and the heavy and
growing losses of livelihoods
and damage to property and ecosystems following droughts.
The Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought (IWG) that
is leading this
initiative is convening for the
first time on 26 March through virtual
meetings involving four task teams. The
outcomes of the initiative could become
effective as early as 2022.
The importance
of early warning followed by early
action for the most vulnerable people and
ecosystems as well as the need
for preparedness to respond fast, cannot
be over-emphasized.
The
IWG’s virtual meeting is taking place after
the Group’s first face-to-face meeting,
scheduled for 25-27 March in Brussels,
Belgium, was suspended following the outbreak and
global spread the corona
virus, COVID-19.
“Over 70
countries worldwide are affected by drought, and
the droughts are spreading to new areas,
recurring more often and lasting longer, sometimes
stretching over a few years or even decades
in some regions. The impacts of these
new drought patterns on people,
property, infrastructure and
ecosystems are unprecedented and are a
growing concern for both developed and
developing countries,” says Ibrahim Thiaw,
Executive Secretary of the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification, which is
facilitating the work of the
IWG.
“Half of the
global land is projected to be drylands
and may be more prone
to drought by 2050. The increase in drought
disasters is a wake-up call to this threat,
especially because some avoidable impacts occur
due to late action, and at worst,
inaction. The possibility created by the IWG to
share experiences and learn from the best examples
of mitigating drought is a big step forward,” he
adds.
Millions of
people are dealing
with the prospect
of drought at the
moment.
In just a few
months (April), in a situation reminiscent of
the 2015 to 2017 drought, a record 45 million
people in Southern Africa may be food insecure,
partly due to drought. The World Food
Programme needed 489 million United
States dollars by February 2020 to help
the 8.3 million people that were already food
insecure in the region, but had yet
to raise half of the required
sum.
Droughts
destroy food that could feed 81 million
people – a population the size of
Germany – every day, for a
year, according to a recent World
Bank report. Drought is also one of
the most cited reasons by young people
leaving their homes in search of better lives
elsewhere, including those migrating to Europe,
according to a recent survey of
migration patterns
in Morocco.
“I cannot
emphasize enough the importance
of this new inter-governmental
initiative. Its value goes beyond
the immediate outcomes of saving lives, livestock,
rangelands and livelihoods in case of drought. It
will improve security in some of the world’s most
fragile areas,” Jarso Ibrahim Gollole, a
pastoralist and natural resource advisor
with Mercycorps in
Kenya says about the
results expected from the
IWG.
“The conflicts
that arise among communities living across borders
– but also within borders – as they compete, in
times of
drought, over few and shrinking pastures
would be minimized. Also, the influx of
communities from neighboring countries seeking to
take advantage of the government services set
aside for affected communities in Kenya,
where drought responses are better, even if they
are not perfect,
would decrease. A collective
approach to managing
drought is far better than what we
have today,” he added.
Drought and
drought impacts are also addressed under
the Climate
Change and Disaster
Risk Reduction processes of the
United Nations. But
the policy focus on drought is
only one among many
other disasters, that are more
noticeable and get stronger policy actions,
especially due to the dramatic nature of their
arrival.
Droughts, by
contrast, set
in slowly and wreak havoc
on some of the world’s poorest
populations. By focusing only
on drought, the IWG is expected
to develop concrete, feasible and appropriate
global options to address its
socio-economic impacts
effectively.
“Another world
is possible. Drought resilience for countries
at varying levels of economic development is
possible. Witness the resilience of
Ethiopia’s Tigray region to the 2014-2016
drought, the famous water harvesting scheme
in Brazil’s north-east region, the Australian
drought trust fund that helps farmers and the
drought management approach of United States where
a Presidential decree is issued early. How drought
is managed must change
fundamentally,” Thiaw said.
“Drought knows no
boundaries, political or sectoral. It is a
connector. The work of the IWG can
bring much-needed coordination among
stakeholders at all levels
and rally affected countries to act and
work together,” says Daniel Tsegai, the UNCCD’s
drought expert in charge of
the IWG process.
“Interest in
the work of the IWG is already high.
Governments, international and non-governmental
organizations and other actors
have sent close to 100 submissions for
consideration. The submissions deal with
issues such as collaboration among
institutions, the barriers and challenges to
drought response and recovery, the opportunities
and measures for action as well as the lessons
learned from successful cases,” he
said.
The IWG was established in September 2019
following intense negotiations by governments
during the 14th session
of the Conference of the Parties to
the United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification.
Its outcomes, which include
recommendations for action, will be
presented to policy makers at
the 15th COP session in Fall
2021.
Notes to
Editors
Attached
is a list of potential
interviewees.
- Mr.
Daniel Tsegai
Programme Officer
UNCCD
secretariat
E-mail: dts...@unccd.int
- Dr.
Caroline King-Okumu
International Development
Opportunities Manager
Centre for Ecology and
Hydrology
E-mail: car...@ceh.ac.uk
- Mr.
Jarso Ibrahim Gollole
Natural Resource
Advisor and Pastoralist
MercyCorps,
Kenya
E-mail: jgol...@mercycorps.com
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