DelegatePack_DroughtConference_20-21March2019

Speakers
Day 2: Parallel Session 1 Drought Planning & Management – The Pichette Auditorium continued
Caroline King The Borders Institute & GeoData Institute co-authored with
Daniel Tsegai Programme Officer, UNCCD Secretariat
A review of methods for drought impact and vulnerability assessment
Droughts emergencies are occurring with increasing frequency and magnitude globally. Their economic and social
impacts are underestimated, particularly in the marginal dry areas of developing countries. Where drought risk
assessment and management are inadequate, drought menaces exacerbate threats to global security and well- being.
In the framework of a UN-Water Initiative on ‘’Capacity Development to support National Drought Management
Policies’’ (NDMP), the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
have initiated a review of approaches and methods for drought impact and vulnerability assessment. This review
explores the strengths and weaknesses of available approaches, tools and methods for assessing drought impact and
vulnerability at the national, local and global levels. Such assessments should be integrated across sectors, scales and
timeframes, and should include particular consideration of the most vulnerable groups. They should reveal adaptation
capabilities, priority actions to enhance them and the economic case for these actions. Findings suggest that many
published assessments fall short in their consideration of the longer-term impacts and vulnerabilities associated with
hydrologic and socio-economic drought. These impacts and vulnerabilities are man-made via urban development and
land and water management patterns. They are therefore largely preventable or manageable. Recommendations focus
on the opportunity for improved international knowledge exchange and capacity building in developing countries to
enhance drought impact and vulnerability assessment. International processes such as the IPCC are playing a critical
role in building capacities for the assessment of loss and damage associated with meteorological and agricultural
droughts. However, the national Parties to the UNCCD and its Drought Initiative could do more to focus the
attention of sovereign scientific processes on pre-emptive assessments of the man-made hydrologic and socioeconomic
vulnerabilities to drought. This should enable better informed actions at all levels to stop preventable
drought crises from exacerbating threats to the global economy and security.