Global Community

Exploring Challenges and Opportunities for Africa’s Landscapes – A Pathway to Mitigating Drought Impact
CLP Africa Webinar – November 12, 2025

We extend our sincere thanks to all those who participated in the CLP Africa webinar held on November 12, 2025, which focused on the challenges and opportunities for African landscapes in the face of increasing droughts.

This exchange provided an opportunity to share scientific analyses, field experiences, and innovative approaches to strengthening climate resilience across the continent.
Watch the webinar again
You can now watch the full recording of the session on our YouTube channel:

Download the presentations
All documents and presentation materials used during the webinar are available for download in the dedicated Drive folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1idsT0w8xR3-1oN3SA0i7WIrtE-IMksd…

Thank you again for your participation and commitment to a more resilient future for Africa. Let's remain mobilized for the protection and restoration of our landscapes.

Dear CLP Members, Dear All,
You are warmly invited to this webinar organized by IAHS - International Association of Hydrological Sciences working group on Drought in the Anthropocene Network (DitA).

📢 This is the third DiTA webinar of 2025 focusing on the theme “Bridging Science-Policy-Practice Gaps in Support of Drought Risk Management and Resilience Building”. The discussion will be inspired by three invited presentations:

💡 Drought impacts and community adaptation: Perspectives on the 2020–2023 drought in East Africa, by Rhoda Odongo, PhD researcher at VUAmsterdam-IVM

💡Breaking down systemic complexity: conceptual models to inform the understanding and management of drought risks, by Davide Cotti, Senior Research Associate at United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)

💡Measuring Dryland Biodiversity in (West) Asia -- A critical revisit of the metrics, by Suyu Liu, Co-Chair of UNCCD Community of Learning and Practice -- Asia

🔔 The focus of this webinar aligns with recent activities within the DiTA working group, including the Drought Resilience +10 Conference, discussions at the Unccd Convention (COP16), Integrated drought Management Programme, and many other international, regional and local initiatives related to drought risk reduction and management. This webinar aims to make a tangible contribution to advance these discussions and help understanding and bridging the science-policy-practice gaps.

📍 Kindly note that this is a public event and no prior registration is required. Feel free to communicate this to relevant people.

𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏, 𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑨𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑨𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂

Desertification affects a large part of Africa and threatens food security, water resources, and the livelihoods of millions of people. Yet, at the heart of this struggle, one essential actor stands out : women.

𝑮𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅
In Africa, women produce up to 70% of local food. They cultivate, fetch water, preserve seeds, and know the soil better than anyone. This close relationship with nature places them on the front lines against the effects of drought and land degradation.

𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔
Across the continent, women-led initiatives are transforming the fight against desertification:
• tree planting and agroforestry,
• farming techniques that retain water and restore soils,
• transforming invasive plants into organic compost, biochar, and biogas,
• turning local plants into income sources (honey, moringa, soap).
These actions revive the land and ensure the food security of communities.

𝑶𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆
Despite their central role, women rarely own the land they cultivate (less than 20% in sub-Saharan Africa). They also have less access to finance and training.

𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏?
Studies show that giving women the same land rights and resources as men could reduce global hunger by 12 to 17% (FAO and Action Against Hunger). This demonstrates how crucial their involvement is for a sustainable future.

In conclusion, women are pillars of resilience in the fight against desertification. By granting them more resources, rights, and recognition, we not only strengthen the battle against land degradation but also promote social justice and safeguard the future of generations to come.

How Smart Tech Is Helping Catch Precious Water That’s Flowing Away

Imagine a huge pipe network under your city, carrying water to people’s homes. Now picture one-third of that water (enough to fill thousands of swimming pools) just vanishing into leaks, theft, or bad bills every year. Fixing leaks with traditional methods can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. It’s costly, slow, and often misses hidden issues. Even worse, analyzing data by hand is error-prone and overly complex for many teams to manage (UNDP).

📖 You can read more and join the discussion in the Community at the UNCCD CLP platform:
👉 https://lnkd.in/egPbpgBF

Here’s where smart, data-powered tools come in (think of them as super-sleuth gadgets for water systems). Two technologies team up to make this happen:

1. Internet of Things (IoT), which is like putting tiny, connected sensors (smart meters) across the water pipes, watching how much flows and how fast, around the clock.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is like teaching a computer to spot unusual patterns—such as pressure dropping in the middle of the night or flow spiking in one spot.

Together, these tools turn data into clues. They help water teams find trouble spots quickly and accurately (without sending field crews everywhere).

UNDP’s Accelerator Lab worked with the startup FlowLess to test this smart system, so it was much cheaper than expensive foreign alternatives and adapted to different local water networks and needs, and the team remained open to feedback and improvements.
📖 You can read more and join the discussion in the Community at the UNCCD CLP platform:
👉 https://lnkd.in/egPbpgBF
Read more:
👉https://lnkd.in/e3h_E-gh
👉https://lnkd.in/eYcKxv4P).

🌬️ Join Us for the UNCCD CLP Learning Exchange on Combating Sand and Dust Storms 🌍
🗓️ Date: July 15, 2025
🕙 Time: 10:00–11:00 (CET)
📍 Virtual Event (Zoom)
🔗 Register here: https://lnkd.in/djpW_xKC

To mark the International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms, the UNCCD Global Communities for Learning and Practice (UNCCD-CLP) is organizing a special Learning Exchange webinar focused on the serious environmental, health, and socioeconomic challenges posed by Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) — and what we can do to address them.
🔍 What to Expect:
Presentations by two distinguished international experts
Insights on SDS source mapping, impact assessment, and mitigation strategies
An interactive Q&A session to foster dialogue and knowledge-sharing

🎤 Featured Speakers:

Prof. Ali Darvishi Boloorani, University of Tehran & UNCCD-CLP Co-Chair – Dust Source Mapping & Mitigation Strategies

Prof. Peter Tozer, Massey University – Impact Assessment: Environmental, Health, and Economic Perspectives

✅ Expected Outcomes:
Enhanced understanding of SDS and its connection to drought and land degradation
Strengthened collaboration among experts, practitioners, and policymakers
Actionable recommendations for SDS-related policy and program development

This session is ideal for professionals and practitioners working in:
🏜️ Sand and Dust Storms
🌾 Drought resilience
🛰️ Early warning systems
🌍 Sustainable land management

📩 Register now via the link above and feel free to reach out for more details. We look forward to your participation!

Dear All,

I am pleased to share my paper published in NHESS Journal (An evaluation of the alignment of drought policy and planning guidelines with the contemporary disaster risk reduction agenda, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 2155–2178, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-2155-2025, 2025)! You can freely download the paper at the journal website: https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/25/2155/2025/

This study evaluates 12 sets of drought policy and planning guidelines for their alignment with the four priority areas of the SENDAI framework. The guidelines do not align very well with the contemporary disaster risk reduction agenda. The study highlights strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and provides useful insights to develop the next generation of drought guidelines that are better aligned with contemporary science–policy–practice agendas.

Hopefully this work will contribute to supporting the accelerated transition towards improved drought risk reduction and management and building the resilience of societies and ecosystems to droughts under changing climate and increasing anthropogenic pressures.

I am happy to discuss this work if you have any questions or would like to collaborate.

Kind regards,
Ilyas Masih