Droughts are extreme events that have major impacts on communities, ecosystems and economies due to slow onset and complex processes. Land and ecosystem degradation increase the risks of loss and damage during droughts, whereas well-adapted practices and policies can enable society to (re)build resilience. This review highlights actions needed to connect and fill gaps in the present systems for ecological and hydrological monitoring, governance, and alignment of economic incentives at regional, national and local scales.

Stopping the slow-burning fuse of drought damage requires improved tracking and reversal of the observable slow-onset nature of hydrological and socio-economic drought. International scientific and technical cooperation to better map and quantify changing loss and damage risks could provide evidence-based action triggers.

How can we reduce drought risks more effectively?

The reasons why resource users are able to apply land restoration practices successfully in some areas but not in others do not only depend on information that they have about local climate and other conditions, but often involve a complex mix of social, economic, financial legal or policy-related factors (Figure 1) [31•]. These can prevent vulnerable people from applying available resource management solutions. Policies and incentives at different scales (Table 4) can alter these barriers.

Aligning economic incentives enabling land users’ restoration practices

At the national level, governments readily take action to prevent drought risks from affecting the most productive sectors — such as power generation, and high value exports. However, it can be harder for politicians to justify major investments in sectors that are not perceived by their popular support bases to generate significant tax revenues or other immediate benefits. In many parts of Africa, both environmental conservation, water management and supply to vulnerable populations are still dependent upon external revenue generation and institution-building [59].