UN agencies join forces to tackle drought and climate change impacts

Bonn, Germany – Two United Nations entities are pooling their expertise to combat the growing threats to water availability and food security, and the increasing intensity of drought as a result of climate change.

The secretariats of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Sunday, 30 May, setting out a framework for collaborating on reducing the vulnerability of communities to drought-related risk and to expand networks that will advance the prevention of drought-associated disasters.

“Drought is a serious problem in virtually all countries and the projected changes in climate for many regions show that they will become more frequent, severe and of a longer duration,” said Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary, UNCCD, at the signing ceremony on Sunday, 30 May. “We aim to make great strides in mitigating the impacts associated with drought and desertification. To do so, we need to put in place comprehensive early warning systems.”

The UNCCD will work with UNISDR and other relevant international bodies to deliver an early warning system for drought and to develop action plans to enhance resilience to climate change.

“The impact of climate change adds further stress to the need to introduce strategic measures to counter the impact of hazards,” said Margareta Wahlström, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction during the signing ceremony. “This is felt acutely in Africa, which has a long history of being prone to costly droughts and floods.

To help reduce the impact of disasters, UNISDR has worked with more than two dozen sub-Saharan nations in Africa and elsewhere to establish National Platforms for disaster risk reduction, a multi-stakeholder mechanism that provides knowledge, skills and resources required for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development policies, planning and programmes.

UNCCD and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have worked together to establish the Drought Management Center for South Eastern Europe. In December 2009, UNCCD and WMO co-sponsored a drought workshop that recommended the use of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) by countries to characterize climate-driven drought. Based on this workshop, UNISDR and WMO are organizing meetings on indices for droughts that affect agriculture and those associated with ground water systems. The outcomes of these meetings will be included in the 2011 UN Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction and reported at future UNCCD meetings.

“There is no excuse for communities to suffer from drought as we witnessed in Africa and Latin America recently,” stressed Mr Gnacadja. “A major expectation from working with UNISDR is building country capacities to handle data and thereby improve drought management systems that will lead to more resilient local communities. Together, we are better able to determine this by pooling our knowledge and expertise.”

“Risks are most effectively reduced locally with the support of a well-informed public,” added Ms Wahlström. More cooperation will also result in more sustainable development.”

The agreement between the two UN agencies advances the objectives of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, a UNISDR-supported global blueprint for disaster risk reduction efforts, and the UNCCD’s 2008-2018 strategic plan.

End notes:

• The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) aims to build disaster-resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of disaster reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, social, economic and environmental losses due to natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters.

• The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement to combat desertification and land degradation in the drylyands. Since entering into force in 1996, the Convention’s 193 state parties are dedicated to improving the conditions of the world’s poorest 1.2 billion people living in drylands, maintaining and restoring the land’s productivity, and mitigating the effects of drought.

For more information, visit: www.unccd.int and www.unisdr.org

For further information and media assistance, contact:
Wagaki Mwangi, UNCCD; tel.: +49 228 815 2820; e-mail: wmwangi@unccd.int
Brigitte Leoni, UNISDR Geneva; tel.: +41 (0)22 917 8897; e-mail: leonib@un.org