International Day for Disaster Reduction

The International Day for Disaster Reduction is celebrated on 13 October to showcase how people and communities around the world reduce their exposure to disasters and to raise awareness on the importance of managing disaster risks.

The UNCCD is making a contribution to addressing extreme natural events through a recently launched Drought Initiative that will work to enhance the resilience of communities and ecosystems to drought through the design of national action plans. The aim is to promote a paradigm shift in the approach to how drought is managed – from a reactive and crisis-based towards a proactive and risk-based one, built on three key pillars:

1. Implementing drought monitoring and early warning systems
2. Assessing drought vulnerability and risk
3. Implementing measures to limit impacts of drought and better respond to drought

An interactive Drought Toolbox will be developed as part of the initiative to help policymakers design drought risk reduction strategies at the national and local levels. 

Learn more:

• Land and human security
• Land and drought
• Drought: reducing impacts and building resilience
• The Drought Initiative
• Le Monde: Notre avenir vaut bien nos investissements