The Drought Resilience +10 Conference was held from 30 September to 2 October 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland, at the WMO Headquarters. The event brought together countries, experts, and practitioners to review progress and lessons learnt since the High-Level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) of 2013, and to explore and define a joint way forward towards a drought-resilient world.
Goals of the conference:
- Reflect on successes and challenges of the past 10 years of drought risk management to learn how to achieve drought resilience in the next decade;
- Consolidate and plan jointly how drought resilience can be brought to scale to respond to the accelerating impacts of climate change in the next decade;
- Work with political leaders to strengthen awareness, mobilize resources, prioritize drought, and increase commitments to building drought resilience and implementing Integrated Drought Management.
The Conference saw the participation of around 1.000 participants from 143 countries (online and in person), with more than 280 attending from 84 countries attending in person in Geneva. Participants actively contributed to the development of the Conference Conclusions and Recommendations.
Outcomes of the Conference
The Conference provided a global forum for the exchange of knowledge, perspectives, and visions amongst the global drought community on how to enhance drought governance and management at all levels and boost the actions towards drought resilience.
The Conclusions and Recommendations from the Conference provide a solid knowledge basis for the coming years to inform all relevant stakeholders around the world on drought management and building drought resilience.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Background
In 2013, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with a number of UN agencies, international and regional organizations, and key national agencies organized the High-Level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) in Geneva from 11 to 15 March 2013. The theme of the HMNDP was “Reducing Societal Vulnerability – Helping Society (Communities and Sectors)”.
10 years later, many drought management initiatives and partnerships have been created. Significant progress has been made worldwide in shifting from a reactive, crisis-oriented, to a proactive, forward-looking approach to integrated drought management. However, despite the progress, drought risk is increasing in the world. Droughts are becoming more frequent and intense, vulnerable populations and ecosystems are underrepresented in management decisions, and political attention and finance are often lacking what would be needed to increase drought resilience globally.
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