11-Sep-2019: Drought Toolbox launched on Day 10 of COP14

The 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) which is currently underway at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida dedicated day 10 to the theme of Drought. The success and challenges of the current tools, methodologies and policies supporting drought preparedness, across the globe were discussed in today’s Conference at the Rio Pavilion Centre.

Drought is a major obstacle to achieving sustainable development goal-15. We need to move faster in our fight against drought. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. The 17 SDGs are integrated—that is, they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability. The SDG-15 refers to: Protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

The UNCCD used the occasion to launch an interactive Drought Toolbox that serves as a platform for developing national drought plans and taking a proactive approach to drought management. The UNCCD developed the Toolbox under the Drought Initiative and in close partnership with WMO, FAO, GWP, National Drought Mitigation Center of the University of Nebraska, and the UN Environment Programme’s Centre for Water and Environment (UNEP-DHI).

The platform offers access to a host of drought resilience building resources, and the toolbox is one of the three focus areas of a Drought Initiative launched following a request by COP 13 to the UNCCD Secretariat. The Drought Initiative focuses on (1) drought preparedness systems; (2) regional efforts to reduce drought vulnerability and risk; and (3) a toolbox to boost the resilience of people and ecosystems to drought. Its partners include WMO, FAO, GWP, the Union for the Mediterranean, UNEP-DHI and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The toolbox is a sort of knowledge bank which contains tools that strengthen the ability of countries to anticipate and prepare for drought effectively and mitigate their impacts as well as tools that enable communities to anticipate and find the land management tools that help them to build resilience to drought.

India is the host country of the ongoing UNCCD COP14 which began from 2ndSeptember and will culminate on 13th September 2019.

11-Sep-2019: Experts stress the need to assess long-term drought impacts

The way to combat frequent droughts, like the ones India faces, lies in evaluating their impacts, a host of experts said at the ongoing 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Losses due to droughts need proper estimation. The Framework for the Assessment of Benefits of Action/Cost of Inaction for Drought Preparedness report was released at the COP in Greater Noida. The framework can help India develop a proactive approach.

Droughts affect 42 per cent of India’s land while another 6 per cent is ‘exceptionally dry plane’; 40 per cent of the country’s population is vulnerable to droughts. Proper estimates of loss are necessary for proactive measures. Current estimates, at best, reflect only the reliefs earmarked for those affected by droughts.

Understanding the impact of droughts can be an entry point for planning drought-risk management. But the approach often focuses on direct and immediate impacts rather than longer-term impacts on society and natural resources. More and better economic analysis could be a decisive factor in moving countries from crisis management to risk management.

Several experts present concurred that conditions of the political economy often gives governments weak incentives to adopt a risk-management approach. Acting on drought impacts is highly visible and with immediate effects. Other causes include the lack of a holistic approach; integrating analysis and action across sectors and agencies and the political economy of aid. It’s easier to get aid for emergencies than resources for long-term investment in marginal areas.

Droughts generally follow a sequence: Changes in meteorology impacts agriculture first and then water:

• Agriculture
• Livestock
• Fisheries
• Irrigation
• Trade and industries
• Environment
• Transport
• Water resources
• Water supply and sanitation
• Education
• Health
• Nutrition
• Social protection.

All such categories need to be considered to estimate the scale of impact of any drought, experts said. This should include economic, environmental and social impacts. This necessitates the framework, which should be relevant to multiple disciplines and sectors but also flexible.

The 10-point framework:

1. Appoint a national drought management policy commission.
2. State or define the goals and objectives of risk-based national drought management policy.
3. Seek stakeholder participation, define and resolve conflicts between key water use sectors.
4. Inventory data and financial resources available and broadly identify groups at risk.
5. Prepare the key tenets of the national drought management policy and preparedness plans.
6. Identify research needs and fill institutional gaps.
7. Integrate science and policy aspects of drought management.
8. Publicise the policy and preparedness plans, build public awareness.
9. Develop education programs for all age and stakeholder groups.
10. Evaluate and revise policy and supporting plans.

29-Aug-2019: 14th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP14) opens on 2 September 2019

The Fourteenth Session of the Conference of Parties (COP14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification opens on, 2 September 2019, in New Delhi and ends on 13 September 2019.

Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, India, and Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification will preside over the event.

Issues on the COP14 agenda include, drought, land tenure, ecosystem restoration, climate change, health, sand and dust storms, cities of the future, financial investment, and the roles of youth, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

Close to 100 ministers and over 3000 delegates from 196 countries are expected at COP14. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed are also expected to attend.

COP14 has attracted the highest number and of decision-makers ever and at the highest level, in our history. The policy decisions to be taken could mark a major turning point for how we manage the scarce land and water resources we have left. We are fast running out of time to build our resilience to climate change, avoid the loss of biological diversity and valuable ecosystems and achieve all other Sustainable Development Goals. But we can turn around the lives of the over 3.2 billion people all over the world that are negatively impacted by desertification and drought, if there is political will. And we can revitalize ecosystems that are collapsing from a long history of land transformation and, in too many cases, unsustainable land management.