Sharm el-Sheikh,
7 November 2022 – At the initiative of the
Presidents of Senegal, Macky Sall and Spain, Pedro
Sánchez, leaders from 30 countries and 20
organizations today launched the International
Drought Resilience Alliance to accelerate action
and help countries to be better prepared for
future droughts.
In the declaration
made in the margins of Sharm el-Sheikh Climate
Change Conference that opened in Egypt this
morning, leaders from all sectors pledged to drive
change in how the world tackles the growing
drought risks: moving from emergency response to
building long-term
resilience.
Droughts are hitting more
often and harder than before, up nearly by a third
since 2000. Climate change is expected to cause
more severe droughts in the future. Recent
droughts in Australia, Europe, western United
States, Chile, the Horn and Southern Africa, show
that no country or region is immune to their
impacts, which run into billions of dollars each
year, not to mention human
suffering.
Presidents Pedro Sánchez
Pérez-Castejón of Spain and Macky Sall of Senegal
rallied world leaders to create the Alliance as “a
specific solution for the United Nations” to the
impacts of climate change.
In a joint
communication, Presidents Sánchez and Sall
declared: “We are only as resilient to climate
change as our land is. Building resilience to
drought disasters is the way to secure the gains
we make on each sustainable development goal,
particularly for the most vulnerable people. The
mission of the alliance is to give political
impetus to make the land’s resilience to drought
and climate change a reality by
2030.”
Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary,
United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD), said: “We are in a race
for drought resilience —and it’s a race we can
win. Drought is a natural hazard but does not have
to lead to human disaster. The solutions are
available, and we can create a drought resilient
world by increasing our ambition, harnessing the
political will, and joining forces to act
together.”
The Alliance
will be bolstered by new political commitments,
including a Euro 5 million seed fund announced by
Spain, co-convener of the event with Senegal, to
support the work of the Alliance and catalyze a
process to mobilize more resources for this
agenda, and a commitment made by the President of
Kenya William Ruto to plant 5 billion trees in the
next 5 years, and 10 billion trees in 10
years.
The Alliance calls on leaders
to make drought resilience a priority in national
development and cooperation, including deepening
the engagement of stakeholders, such as the
private sector, in work on drought
resilience.
Among the key objectives
of the Alliance is promoting the consolidation of
regional initiatives to fast-track sharing of
innovation, technology transfer and mobilization
of resources.
The Alliance will also
collaborate with other platforms, including the
initiative launched by the United Nations
Secretary-General and the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) to achieve universal coverage
of early warning systems and regional initiatives
to reap the maximum benefits of working together
on drought resilience.
Building
drought resilience presents an opportunity to
significantly reduce the high human, social and
economic costs of drought. These range from the
loss of life, livelihoods and biodiversity, to
water and food insecurity, to disruption in the
energy, transportation and tourism sectors, as
well as forced migration, displacement, and
conflicts over scarce resources.
The
title of this article was revised to reflect that
the alliance is an initiative of Spain and Senegal
and the number of countries that
joined,
For more
information, please contact:
Contact
UNCCD:
Notes to
Editors More information
about the
International Drought Resilience
Alliance, Leaders’ Declaration and full
list of supporting countries and organizations can
be found here:
https://idralliance.global/ Drought
in numbers
- Drought
represents the most serious hazard to livestock
and crops in nearly every part of the world, and
ranks among the greatest threats to sustainable
development, especially in developing countries,
but increasingly so in developed nations too.
- According
to the latest Drought in Numbers report compiled
by UNCCD, droughts have increased in frequency
by 29% since 2000, with some 55 million people
affected every year.
- The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
projects that droughts will be more frequent,
severe and last longer. Climate change bears
much of the responsibility, but so does how we
manage our land and water resources.
- The
IPCC estimates that three out of every four
people in the world will be living in drier,
water-scare conditions by 2050.
- Between
1900 and 2019, droughts impacted 2.7 billion
people worldwide and caused 11.7 million deaths.
- From
1998 to 2017, drought generated economic losses
of about US$124 billion across the world, not to
mention the cost in human suffering and lives.
- Drought
is a driver of migration: water deficits explain
10% of the rise in total migration.
- The
latest IPCC report projects that by 2030,
drought will displace 700 million people in
Africa alone.
- By
2040, an estimated one in four children will
live in areas with extreme water shortages
- Up
to 216 million people could be forced to migrate
by 2050, largely due to drought in combination
with other factors including water scarcity,
declining crop productivity, sea-level rise, and
overpopulation.
