Regional Drought Preparedness Network for Asia and the Pacific

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Regional Drought Preparedness Network for
Asia and the Pacific  

• By Pak Sum LOW
• Regional Adviser
• Environment and Sustainable Development
• United Nations Economic and Social Commission for
  Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
• E-mail low_at_un.org
• A Presentation at the Second International
  Conference on Early Warning, 16-18 October 2003,
• Bonn, Germany

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Drought events

• are very widespread in Asia and the Pacific -
  from Afghanistan (persistent drought in the past
  four years) to the Pacific small island states
  (drought-induced by ENSO)

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Drought in Central Java, August 2002
Drought in India, May 2003
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Drought in Gujarat, India, June 2003

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Above-average precipitation has been observed
over the tropical Pacific, especially in the
vicinity of the date line (180oW) since August
2002, while drier-than-average conditions
prevailed over many sections of Indonesia, India,
Mexico and Central America. These oceanic and
atmospheric conditions indicate the presence of
El Niño.

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The frequency, persistence and magnitude of
El-Niño events have increased in the last 20
years, and this trend is projected to continue.
The El-Niño phenomena leads to floods and
droughts throughout the tropics and subtropics,
though with different spatial patterns
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Drought Preparedness Policy

• Very few developing countries have formulated
  drought preparedness policy

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Global Drought Preparedness Network (GDPN)

• Prof. Don Wilhites vision
• This GDPN is composed of Regional Drought
  Preparedness Networks (RDPNs).
• This initiative has been endorsed by the UNISDR
  Ad Hoc Drought Discussion Group in March 2003.

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Global Drought Preparedness Network (GDPN)

• GOAL
• To help nations build greater institutional and
  technical capacity to cope with drought by
  promoting risk management and sharing information
  and lessons learned on drought monitoring,
  mitigation, preparedness and management.

Building national, regional and global
partnerships
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Global Drought Preparedness Network (GDPN)

• Individually, many nations will be unable to
  improve drought coping capacity.
• Collectively, through national, regional and
  global partnerships, we can share information and
  experiences to reduce the impacts of drought.

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Regional Drought Preparedness Networks
SEAsia
CAsia
Med
Pacific
GDPN (NDMC)
SSA
NAm
NAm
Europe
CAm
SAm
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Regional Network Objectives

• To facilitate development of drought early
  warning systems, preparedness plans, and policies
  aimed at vulnerability reduction
• Must be region-specific

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Information Sharing

• Drought policies
• Data availability
• Planning methodologies
• Stakeholder involvement
• Traditional or indigenous practices
• Automated weather data networks
• Use of climate/drought indices
• EWS and information delivery
• Triggers or thresholds
• Mitigation/emergency response actions
• Water demand reduction/augmentation
• Impact assessment methodologies
• Scientific collaboration

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Regional Drought Preparedness Network for Asia
and the Pacific

• In response to the global drought preparedness
  network initiative, UNESCAP in partnership with
  UNISDR, UNDP, UNCCD Secretariat, International
  Drought Information Center and Asian Disaster
  Preparedness Centre (ADPC), are developing a
  project proposal on Regional Drought Preparedness
  Network for Asia and the Pacific, to be funded by
  the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

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Regional Drought Preparedness Network for Asia
and the Pacific

• Basically, it is an umbrella of three GEF
  medium-size projects for three subregions
• Central Asia,
• South and East Asia, and
• the Pacific.

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Phase I Participating Countries

• Endorsement letters received
• Afghanistan
• Cambodia
• Lao PDR
• Myanmar
• Papua New Guinea
• Vietnam
• China? India?

• Endorsement letters expected
• Indonesia,
• Pakistan,
• Thailand

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Subregional Drought Preparedness Networks

• Central Asia
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyz Republic
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan

• The Pacific
• Cook Islands,
• Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji,
• Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue,
  Republic of Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands,
  Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

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Planned Activities

• Project planning workshop (to be held in early
  January 2004)
• to discuss and develop work plan,
• to identify key local, national and regional
  institutions with responsibilities in various
  aspects of drought management (i.e., planning,
  monitoring, forecasting, mitigation, response)
• Provide information on drought monitoring,
  mitigation, and preparedness techniques and
  methodologies and linkages to the participating
  institutions

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Planned Activities

1. Develop and maintain a regional drought
   preparedness network website to link various
   organizations and agencies. As other networks
   develop in other regions, these regional networks
   would be linked into a global network
2. Develop and maintain national drought-related web
   sites that link the principal national and
   regional institutions and to link into the
   regional network

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Planned Activities

• Scientific and technical exchanges with other
  groups to promote drought preparedness activities
  in the region
• Public awareness and education on drought and its
  impacts, and on drought preparedness and
  management

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Planned Activities

• 7. Capacity-building on drought preparedness and
  management through regional and subregional
  training workshops, with a view to assisting the
  governments in developing or strengthening their
  drought policies and strategies so that they can
  be integrated into the national sustainable
  development plan.

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Linkage to UNCCD Thematic Programme Networks
(TPNs)

• TPN 1 Desertification Monitoring and Assessment
• TPN 2 Agroforestry and Soil Conservation in
  Arid, Semi-Arid and Dry Sub-humid Areas
• TPN 3 Rangeland Management and Fixation of
  Shifting Sand Dunes
• TPN 4 Water Resources Management for Agriculture
  in Arid, Semi-Arid, and Dry Sub-Humid Areas
• TPN 5 Strengthening Capacities for Drought
  Impact Management and Desertification Control
  and
• TPN 6 Assistance for the Implementation of
  Integrated Land Area Development Programmes
  (LADPs) Initiatives.

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Linkage to UNCCD Subregional Programmes (SRAPs)
and RAP

• SRAP for West Asia (developed)
• SRAP for Central Asia (developed)
• SRAPs for South Asia, NE Asia, SE Asia and the
  Pacific (to be developed)
• Regional Action Programme (RAP) (2003-2008)

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Linkage to UNFCCC

• Climate change impacts (projected increase in
  frequency of extreme events, including drought)
• Adaptation plans (e.g. NAPA for LDCs)

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Acknowledgement

• The slides on Global Drought Preparedness Network
  used in this presentation are modified from Prof.
  Don Wilhites previous presentation on the same
  topic.

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• Thank you for your kind attention!