COP17 launches DRIF, the first global finance instrument for drought resilience

• The Drought Resilience Investment Facility (DRIF), the first global catalytic financing platform aims to mobilize up to USD 400 million in public and private capital for drought resilience.

• The world's first Drought Resilience Index will provide a new basis for targeting policies and investments to reduce drought risk. 

• COP17 advances work towards a new global pooled fund to help around 70 low- and lower-middle-income countries strengthen drought resilience 

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 26 August 2026 --- By 2050, three out of four people worldwide could face drought. Responding to that challenge, the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) marked a significant step towards shifting the global response to drought from crisis management to proactive resilience.

A series of announcements and launches at COP17 are strengthening the way countries finance, measure and implement drought resilience. Three distinct initiatives mark this progress: the launch by Luxembourg and UNCCD of the Drought Resilience Investment Facility (DRIF), a new catalytic finance platform aiming to mobilize up to USD 400 million in public and private capital; progress towards a global pooled fund to support drought resilience in low- and lower-middle-income countries; and the unveiling of the world’s first Drought Resilience Index.

Taken together, these initiatives reflect growing recognition that drought can no longer be managed as an isolated environmental challenge. It is a systemic risk requiring stronger governance, investment in preparedness, and coordinated action before its impacts cascade into wider social and economic crises. 

UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad said: "COP17 is about turning commitments into implementation. We now have stronger financing mechanisms, better tools and practical guidance to help countries prepare for drought before it becomes a crisis. The task now is to connect these pieces and put them to work at scale, through governments, development partners, financial institutions and the private sector.” 

Mobilizing investment in drought resilience

Water Day at COP17 marked the launch of the Drought Resilience Investment Facility (DRIF), the first global catalytic finance platform dedicated to drought resilience. 

Co-created by the Government of Luxembourg and the UNCCD, with the support from the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), DRIF is designed to use public and catalytic capital to reduce investment risks and unlock much larger flows of institutional and private finance.  

With an ambition to mobilize up to USD 400 million in public and private capital, DRIF will invest in commercially viable projects and businesses that strengthen drought resilience while generating measurable environmental, social and financial returns.

Rather than approaching water security, sustainable agriculture, land restoration and nature-based solutions as separate investment themes, DRIF brings them together through a single lens: their contribution to drought resilience.

Its ambition also extends beyond the capital mobilized by the Facility itself. DRIF aims to demonstrate that investments in drought resilience can be commercially viable, build a track record for the sector and help establish resilience as an investable proposition capable of attracting much larger flows of private capital over time.

Gilles Roth, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg said: “Luxembourg’s EUR 5 million commitment to the Facility reflects a simple idea: public money can help bring much more private investment into areas where it is urgently needed. Together with the UNCCD, we want the Drought Resilience Investment Facility to turn promising ideas into investable projects and help bring them to scale. The aim is to make investment in drought resilience possible where the market alone would not get us there.” 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg provided an initial contribution of USD 2 million to support the design, structuring and establishment of DRIF.

Minister Xavier Bettel said: “As a founding partner of DRIF,  Luxembourg is proud to help advance innovative solutions to drought, one of the most pressing challenges facing vulnerable communities worldwide. By bringing together public and private partners, DRIF will help channel investment towards solutions that reduce vulnerability and strengthen the resilience of communities, economies and ecosystems, while delivering environmental, social and financial returns. This initiative reflects our commitment to building resilience before drought becomes a crisis.” 

At COP17, the Facility also announced its first strategic partnership with the Global Environment Facility(GEF), with the objective of exploring opportunities to unlock private and philanthropic finance through the GEF’s Blended Finance Program.

Expanding finance for countries

Alongside DRIF, work is advancing on a proposed pooled fund under the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership (RGDRP) to help around 70 low- and lower-middle-income countries strengthen drought resilience.

The proposed fund would support capacity-building, the development of investment-ready programmes and financing for drought-resilience investments. The Partnership's first Assembly of Partners during COP17 advanced discussions on the Fund and the transition from institutional set-up towards operational delivery. 

 Saudi Arabia, the RGDRP’s founding donor, pledged USD 150 million to the pooled Fund at COP16.  

The Fund will be open to additional contributions from governments and donors, including through grants and official development assistance. It will complement separate financing from development banks and other partners, including USD 2 billion pledged by the Islamic Development Bank and the OPEC Fund at COP16.  

Dr. Osama Ibrahim Faqeeha, Deputy Minister of Environment of Saudi Arabia, said: “Drought resilience is an urgent necessity; every dollar invested in drought preparedness pays off many times over when drought strikes. Saudi Arabia is proud to have established the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership during COP16 as an umbrella for international collaboration to strengthen drought resilience in vulnerable low- and lower-middle-income countries, with voluntary contributions from governments and the private sector. RGDRP will help countries develop and implement drought resilience plans by strengthening partnerships and leveraging innovation, knowledge-sharing and capacity-building.” 

Assessing drought resilience 

Another milestone was the unveiling of Phase II of the International Drought Resilience Observatory (IDRO), the first global observatory dedicated to drought resilience.

Developed by UNCCD with Yale Center for Ecosystems and Architecture (Yale CEA) and partners under the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the launch marks IDRO's transition from the pilot version unveiled at COP16 to an online platform that can help countries move beyond monitoring drought hazards to strengthening their resilience.  

 At its core is the world's first Drought Resilience Index (DRI), enabling countries to assess their capacity to anticipate, prepare for and adapt to drought while identifying vulnerabilities and informing more effective policies and investments. New AI-powered features can help policy-makers, technical experts and the public interpret complex data and turn it into practical insights. 

Featuring eight in-depth country case studies across five continents, the platform is now open for review to users worldwide, whose feedback will help further refine the tool.  

Moving forward, the focus will be on working with IDRA member countries to assess how the tool can inform and enhance their decision-making processes. 

María Jesús Rodríguez de Sancho, Director General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification, which co-chairs IDRA with Senegal, said: “As a Mediterranean country, Spain knows first-hand the economic, social and environmental costs of drought. Our experience has shown us that resilience cannot be built through isolated efforts. That is why Spain has invested in the development of IDRO and the Drought Resilience Index as part of the drive to proactively manage drought risk.” 

COP17 as an opportunity 

The initiatives advanced at COP17 address different parts of the same challenge: helping countries anticipate drought, understand where resilience needs to be strengthened, develop investable solutions and mobilize the public and private capital needed to implement them.

Speaking at the opening of the Ministerial Dialogue on Drought Resilience, UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad said: “We cannot continue to wait for drought to become a crisis before we act. We have the tools, partnerships and financial mechanisms to invest in preparedness, reduce losses and protect people and communities. COP17 must deliver a strong outcome on drought, backed by the means of implementation needed to turn ambition into action at national and local level, where drought resilience is ultimately built.” 

For Mongolia, the host of COP17, the conference carries particular significance. Prime Minister Nyam-Osor Uchral said: 

“The biggest change we want to see from COP17 is a shift from words to action, from targets to implementation, and from commitments to measurable results. Let us make drought resilience not only an environmental priority, but a core part of development policy.” 

For media enquiries 

UNCCD Press Office: press [at] unccd.int (press[at]unccd[dot]int)

About UNCCD  

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the global vision and voice for land and the only binding global treaty on land. We unite governments, scientists, policymakers, private sector and communities around a shared vision and global action to restore and manage the world’s land for the sustainability of humanity and the planet. Much more than an international treaty signed by 197 Parties, UNCCD is a multilateral commitment to mitigating today’s impacts of land degradation and advancing tomorrow’s land stewardship to provide food, water, shelter and economic opportunity to all people in an equitable and inclusive manner. 

About UNCCD COP17 

The seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is taking place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17 to 28 August 2026 under the theme "Restoring Land, Restoring Hope." Bringing together the Convention's 197 Parties, alongside international organizations, financial institutions, scientists, Indigenous Peoples, the private sector and civil society, COP17 focuses on accelerating global action on land restoration and drought resilience through stronger finance, partnerships and science. 

About IDRA 

About IDRA The International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) is the first global coalition creating political momentum and mobilizing financial and technical resources for a drought-resilient future. As a growing platform of more than 70 countries and institutions, IDRA draws on the collective strengths of its members to advance policies, actions, and capacity-building for drought preparedness, acknowledging we are only as resilient to drought and climate change as our land is. The work of IDRA is aligned with, and supportive of, the mandate of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which hosts the IDRA Secretariat. For more information: https://idralliance.global.