Promoting and supporting partnerships to harness the knowledge and experience of stakeholders and enabling targeted actions for drought response, agricultural production and sustainable use of water in agriculture is the way forward, thereby addressing the challenges for agricultural production and livelihoods posed by climate change. The organization of a joint seminar on drought follows the letter by the two Permanent Representatives from the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, dated 02 December 2016, to the FAO Director-General that underlined the importance of integrated approaches to drought management and drought preparedness, suggesting a seminar to discuss these approaches along with scalable good examples and innovations for associated implementations and investments. The positive response by the FAO Director-General was followed by exploratory and preparatory meetings involving FAO and the offices of the two Permanent Representations.