Drought is the world’s costliest natural disaster and affects more people than any other form of natural catastrophe. Due to climate change and associated effects, the duration and intensity of drought is expected to increase in the coming decades. In order to address this pressing issue, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC), are collaborating to implement a UN-Water capacity development initiative on National Drought Management Policies (NDMP). The objective of this joint UN-Water initiative is to increase the capacities in developing countries and countries in transition on the development of risk-based national drought management policies.

The first four regional workshops were for Eastern Europe (9-11 July 2013), Latin America and the Caribbean (4-6 December 2013) Asia-Pacific (6-9 May 2014) and Eastern and Southern Africa (5-8 August 2014). The 5th regional workshop for Near East and North Africa (NENA) was held from 17-20 November 2014 in Cairo, and was attended by 34 representatives from the: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran (Islamic republic of), Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen.

Materials

1. Background Materials

Workshop Agenda	Workshop Poster	List of Participants	Summary Report

2. National Reports

3. Presentations

Session 1: Opening session & overview

Introduction into a Regional Initiative on Water Scarcity (Pasquale Steduto, FAO)

Overview of the initiative, objectives and scope of the workshop (Daniel Tsegai, UNW-DPC)

Session 2: Setting the scene

Managing Drought Risk in a Changing Climate: The Role of National Drought Policy (Keynote by Dr. Donald A. Wilhite)

Biodiversity and Drought (David Coates, CBD)

Session 3: Drought monitoring and early warning systems

Session 4: Vulnerability and risk assessment

Session 5: Drought preparedness, mitigation and responses

Drought preparedness, mitigation and response (Mohamed Bazza, FAO)

Session 6: Towards action plan – Developing national drought management policy

Towards developing National drought management policy: The 10-Step Process (Daniel Tsegai, UNW-DPC)

7. Photo Gallery

Link to the Kick-off workshop

Link to Events on NDMP

Link to 1^st Regional Workshop Eastern European countries Page

Link to 2^nd Regional Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean Page

Link to 3^rd Regional Workshop for for Asia-Pacific Page

Link to 4^th Regional Workshop for Eastern Southern and Africa