All publications and documents

The incidence and intensity of droughts is expected to increase in Southern Africa over the coming years. In order to mitigate these trends, the region has developed the SADC Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Strategy (DRIMMS), which is a 10-year road map to achieve region-wide drought resilience. The objective of the strategy is to enhance the capacity of the SADC countries to…

This drought vulnerability assessment for SADC uses the IPCC framework to assess the distribution of drought hazard and social and biophysical vulnerability to those hazards in order to identify drought vulnerability and risk hotspots. The assessment reveals that most of the SADC countries are experiencing an increasing trend in terms of drought severity, albeit with differing rates of…

There are valuable lessons to be learned from drought risk management around the world for the SADC region. Nations and regional governments must improve their drought monitoring and early warning systems. A better drought plan must consider risk assessments at all levels, from the community level to the regional level, to achieve better vulnerability and risk/impact assessments at the national…

National drought plans are important instruments to support the transition to proactive drought management. Over 70 countries have developed national drought plans under the Drought Initiative of the UNCCD. This new publication from FAO draws on the results of the assessment of the validated and published plans. It contributes to multiple objectives, including the presentation of a…

The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) took place from 9 to 20 May 2022 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The theme of COP15 was Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity. COP15 discussed sustainable solutions for land restoration and drought resilience, with a strong focus…