Drought

Historically, droughts have caused extensive damage. Effective responses to drought remain a challenge, with reactive and crisis-oriented approaches dominating many interventions. The consequences of drought extend beyond households and rural livelihoods, impacting industrial operations and sectors such as energy, agriculture and water supply. Integrating Nature-based Solutions (NbS) into drought policies requires a comprehensive, context-aware approach.

In the Northeast Asia sub-region, environmental pollution, transboundary sand and dust storms (SDS), agricultural expansion, deforestation, and overgrazing are growing challenges that are being further complicated by the impacts of climate change.

Globally, disasters due to natural hazards takes an enormous toll in terms of human lives, destruction to crops and livelihoods, and economic losses. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has therefore become a critical part of sustainable development strategies. Over the past decades, the role of healthy ecosystems in providing cheap, reliable protection against natural hazards has been increasingly recognized.

Globally, disasters due to natural hazards takes an enormous toll in terms of human lives, destruction to crops and livelihoods, and economic losses. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has therefore become a critical part of sustainable development strategies. Over the past decades, the role of healthy ecosystems in providing cheap, reliable protection against natural hazards has been increasingly recognized.

This paper is a UNISDR contribution towards effective Drought Contingency Planning (DCP) for stakeholders and partners implementing drought risk reduction programmes in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). It attempts to convert findings, concepts and guidelines into a guidance document from critical gaps to bridge general drought preparedness, contingency planning and early response.

This nonfiction narrative set in the Kalahari dramatizes the timeless struggle over water, the fulcrum of political power. Facing drought, scarcity and climate change the besieged indigenous Bushmen use voluntary survival strategies while Botswana's government enforces regulatory rule. Their rivalry foreshadows our world, where two in three thirsty humans will soon endure shortages, resource conflict, a $900 billion market, and a global fight for water as a human right.