Owing to climate change and land degradation, droughts are becoming more frequent, more severe, and more widespread. Building national and regional risk-management systems that can endure what is coming will require political will and significantly more international cooperation.

BONN – Drought may be an ancient scourge, but it is getting worse. No region or country today is immune to its effects. Southern Europe is in the grip of a severe drought – the worst in 70 years for Italy. In the western United States, the past two decades have been the driest in 1,200 years. Chile is in its 13th consecutive year of drought, and Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest city, is now being forced to ration water.

In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are recording their fourth consecutive year without rains, and the situation has grown increasingly dire for people, livestock, and the ecosystems that support them. Owing to a lack of adequate nutrition, children are dying from diseases they would ordinarily survive. Even camels – which typically survive longer than people or other animal species – are dropping dead in large numbers across this region.

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