Background
Upon the request of the Conference of Parties (COP) at its thirteenth Meeting (COP13), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and partner institutions established the Drought Initiative. The Drought Initiative focused on three actions: working together at the regional level to reduce drought vulnerability and risk; providing a toolbox that stakeholders can use to boost the drought resilience of both people and ecosystems; setting up drought preparedness system, particularly national drought plans. Following up on the decision, UNCCD has been supporting the development of comprehensive national drought plans.
A project “Enabling Activities for Implementing UNCCD COP Drought Decisions” funded by the Global Environment Facility, jointly implemented by FAO and the UNCCD, is currently running to support the operationalization of national drought plans according to the principles of integrated drought management. Within the framework of this project, FAO, UNCCD, IDMP, WMO, and GWP are organizing a regional workshop for Africa with the aim to strengthen national and institutional frameworks and to build capacities for the implementation of the national drought plans.
Objectives
The objectives of the workshop are to build capacities on effective planning of drought management and the implementation of drought plans, including the integration of plans with the national action plans to the UNCCD. Furthermore, the workshop will facilitate the peer-to-peer learning and development of the community-of-practice in drought management. Towards these objectives, the workshop will involve five sessions:
- A global overview of national drought plans – planning towards integrated drought management: the session will present a global-level overview and the results of a multi-criteria assessment of the Drought Initiative submission, including the demonstration of comprehensive tools to support the planning and implementation.
- Progress on the activities towards the implementation of national drought plans – turning policy into actions to improve resilience: the session will provide an insight into advances in support of the implementation of national drought plans, including a results framework to monitor the implementation.
- Institutional set-up and coordination of integrated drought management – reviewing institutional responsibilities and roles to manage drought risk: the session will provide best practices and methodologies for enhanced institutional functions and coordination, including a stocktaking of country experiences.
- Policy alignment and National Action Plans for the UNCCD – mainstreaming drought management into national frameworks: the session will line up new approaches and best practices to align national drought plans to policy frameworks, including a stocktaking of country experiences.
- Drought finance – financing for integrated drought management: the session will introduce new pathways, approaches, instruments, and tools to increase understanding of drought finance and support the intensification of finance flows.