COP17 launches new Drought Resilience Index to support earlier action on drought

Drought resilience is not only about knowing when and where drought will occur. It is about understanding how well societies, economies, ecosystems and institutions can anticipate, prepare for and adapt to its impacts —and where action can make them better able to withstand the next shock.

“We have become very good at observing drought. But we are still, in many ways, data-rich and decision-poor,” said UNCCD Chief Scientist Barron Orr at the launch. The challenge, he stressed, is to turn increasingly sophisticated drought information into actionable intelligence.”

During the UNCCD COP17, the launch of Phase II (version Beta) of the International Drought Resilience Observatory (IDRO) brought together governments, scientists and international partners to address the challenge of how to turn growing knowledge about drought into stronger resilience.

The launch introduced the Drought Resilience Index (DRI) to help countries assess their capacity to anticipate, prepare for and adapt to drought. By bringing together evidence across environmental, social, infrastructure and economic dimensions, the Index aims to show where resilience is weakest and where action and investment could make the greatest difference. 

The new tool has been developed under the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), with UNCCD and in collaboration with the Yale Center for Environment and Architecture and partner institutions from around the world. Now in beta, IDRO has been financed by Spain, which co-chairs IDRA with Senegal, and the European Union.

From measuring drought to measuring resilience

“As we are seeing from Europe to the Horn of Africa to the Panama Canal, drought does not stay where its starts,” said UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Andrea Meza, who noted that “its impacts cut across economies and ecosystems and persist over time. A drought affecting crops or water supplies in one place can disrupt energy, transport, supply chains and livelihoods far beyond where it began making it essential to manage drought risk in a cross-cutting manner and at all levels of governance”, she said.

Meza added: “The same drought does not necessarily have the same impacts everywhere. Its consequences depend on the capacity of communities, economies and ecosystems to absorb the impact, adapt and recover. Resilience is about reducing that vulnerability, and IDRO can help us understand where it lies.”

Meza placed IDRO within a broader global architecture for drought resilience, alongside IDRA, the Drought Resilience Investment Facility (DRIF) and the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership (RGDRP).

Making resilience gaps visible

Edgar Gutiérrez, IDRO Senior Policy Advisor and former Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica, described the Drought Resilience Index as “a practical decision compass —showing not only where drought risk exists, but where resilience is weakest, what dimension needs attention, and where action and investment can have the greatest preventive impact.”

IDRO aids Users to explore how countries perform across three dimensions —Anticipate, Prepare and Adapt— and across four domains: the Natural Environment, Built Environment, People and Community, and Economy. Interactive maps, country profiles, underlying indicators and data sources, case studies and an AI-enabled function that helps interpret search results allow users to explore the evidence behind the Index.

“A report is a snapshot, frozen at the time of publication”, said Anna Dyson, Founding Director of the Yale Center for Environment and Architecture (CEA). “IDRO turns the Drought Resilience Index into a practical tool, allowing users to go beyond a single score to understand what is driving resilience, identify priorities and support better-informed decisions.”

María Jesús Rodríguez de Sancho, Director General for Forest Policy and Desertification Control at Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), noted: “It is our hope that IDRO may contribute to bridge the gap between knowledge and action, by bringing together scientific evidence, local experience and policy-relevant information in a single platform.” 

Spain, which co-chairs IDRA with Senegal, has contributed one of IDRO’s in-depth case studies, alongside Australia, Brazil, Mongolia, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and the United States. Together, the case studies bring country experience into the platform, translating data and evidence into practical lessons that can be adapted to other contexts.

Scientific and international partners

Senegal’s role as IDRA co-chair was also reflected in the launch, with Aliou Gory Diouf, Minister of Environment and Ecological Transition, highlighting the importance of international cooperation in strengthening drought resilience.

The launch also brought together scientific and technical partners behind IDRO. Andrea Toreti, Senior Scientist and Head of the Copernicus EMS Drought Observatory at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre,highlighted the need for drought intelligence to evolve alongside advances in science and technology. Valentin Aich, senior Water and Climate specialist with the Global Water Partnership and World Meteorological Organization, emphasized the importance of translating resilience assessments into practical support for decision-makers, while Hind Wildman, Co-founder of Yale CEA, highlighted the value of making complex information accessible to different audiences.

Ina Marčiulionytė, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Mongolia, also underscored the importance of strengthening resilience through cooperation and better evidence. With Phase II, IDRO aims to support earlier, more targeted action, helping countries reduce the vulnerability for communities, economies and ecosystems.