Planning for integrated drought management in Central Asia

 

Background

The increasing frequency and severity of drought events have been urging countries to strengthen their preparedness and build resilience. Central Asia, being an arid region, is exposed to climate extremes, including drought. Drought has a direct and cascading impact in the region, affecting, inter alia, the irrigated agriculture sector, the livestock sector, and the energy sector. To effectively mitigate the impact of drought, it is crucial to consider all possible probabilities when planning for drought management. The complexity of drought events and their far-reaching impacts require rigorous planning that considers the “multi” nature of drought. The planning should address the three pillars of integrated drought management: (i) monitoring and early warning; (ii) vulnerability and impact assessment; and (iii) mitigation, response, and preparedness. Plans should support the paradigm shift to proactive, risk management. Drought management must be planned in an overarching and flexible manner that can accommodate the constantly evolving environment.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) established the Drought Initiative. The Drought Initiative rolled out a large-scale programme to support the development of national drought plans. Since its beginning, substantial experience has accumulated, which can guide the newly acceding members in the planning process. The protocol established by the UNCCD and its partners, as well as the technical knowledge resources provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are fundamental for building capacities resilience-building and establishing comprehensive plans.

 

Objectives

Organized under the framework of the FAO-GEF project "Integrated natural resources management in drought prone and salt affected agricultural landscapes in Central Asia and Türkiye - CACILM2", the objective of the workshop is to increase understanding of planning for integrated drought management and initiate peer-to-peer learning amongst countries and technical organizations. The workshop will gather technical experts from relevant Ministries in Central Asia and partners  to review knowledge resources and approaches to drought planning, based on state-of-art methods, models and techniques, and to bring insight into its finance . The goal is to equip technical experts with the capacity to identify resources and select the best-fitting approaches to formulate a comprehensive drought plan. The workshop is structured around the planning steps described as follows:

• an overview of the pre-conditions of drought planning and the preparatory steps;
• evaluation approaches to the alignment to sector-specific policy frameworks and the coordination of institutional stakeholders;
• stocktaking of estimation methods and indices to design monitoring and early-warning systems for drought, and showcasing relevant monitoring systems and infrastructure;
• an introduction of diversified methods for risk, vulnerability and impact assessments;
• an inventory of mitigation and preparedness measures to construct action plans;
• insight into drought finance, its enabling pathways and mechanisms and the development of financial plans that connect with action plans.
  

Full agenda

MONDAY 16 OCTOBER 2023

Introduction

• 08.30 - 09.00: Registration of participants
• 09.00 - 09.15: Opening remarks 
• 09.15 - 09.30: Tour de table
• 09.30 - 09.40: Presentation of the workshop objectives and agenda (EN, RU) – Mr Maher Salman, FAO
• 09.40 - 10.00: The Regional Strategy for Drought Risk Management and Mitigation in Central Asia for 2021–2030 – Mr Daniel Tsegai, UNCCD

Session 1 – Pre-conditions and preparatory steps for drought planning

• 10.00 - 10.15: The three pillars of integrated drought management: the need for a paradigm shift –Mr Daniel Tsegai, UNCCD
• 10.15 - 10.30: The schematic overview of the 8-step process for drought planning (EN, RU) – Mr Maher Salman, FAO
• 10.30 - 11.00: Coffee break
• 11.00 - 11.15: Setting purpose, scope, goals and objective of drought plans: lessons learnt (EN, RU) – Ms Eva Pek, FAO
• 11.15 - 11.30: The definition of drought: Understanding the concepts of meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socio-economic drought – Mr Dario Masante, European Commission's Joint Research Centre
• 11.30 - 11.45: Stocktaking of pre-conditions: the required hard and soft measures to plan drought management (EN, RU) – Ms Eva Pek, FAO
• 11.45 - 12.00: Tools in service: A walkthrough of the global knowledge resources (EN, RU) - Mr Maher Salman, FAO
• 12.00 - 12.30: Q&A session
• 12.30 - 13.30: Lunch break

Session 2 – Policy and institutional frameworks for better alignment and coordination

• 13.30 - 13.40: The review of historical droughts from policy perspective: mapping out the impacted sectors – Mr Daniel Tsegai, UNCCD
• 13.40 - 14.00: An approach to assess the policy environment: an analytical framework and case studies (EN, RU) –Ms Eva Pek, FAO
• 14.00 - 14.15: Assessing the institutional environment: illustrating institutional analysis in drought management plans (EN, RU) – Ms Sining Cuevas, FAO
• 14.15 - 14.30: Drought Management and Coordination: Global efforts within the Paris Agreement and UNFCCC Convention, and the Role at COP28 – Ms Evetta Zenina, FAO
  
• 14.30 - 14.45: Q&A session
• 14.45 - 15.00: Coffee break
• 15.00 - 16.15: Identification of resources to prepare drought plans – Participatory session
• 16.15: Wrap-up 

 

TUESDAY 17 OCTOBER 2023

Session 3 – Drought monitoring and early warning, and the required sub-systems for information generation

• 09.00 - 09.30: Data management I.: Data requirement and the selection of drought indices – Mr Dario Masante, European Commission's Joint Research Centre
• 09.30 - 10.00: Data management II.: Tools and best practices in monitoring and early-warning infrastructure  – Mr Juan Acosta Navarro, European Commission's Joint Research Centre
• 10.00 - 10.15: Data acquisition infrastructure I: small-scale weather stations - Mr Jose Antonio Jimenez-Berni, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, CSIC
• 10.15 - 10.30: Data acquisition infrastructure II: remote-sensing-based techniques - Mr Michele Meroni , European Commission's Joint Research Centre
• 10.30 - 10.45: Q&A session
• 10.45 - 11.00: Coffee break
• 11.00 - 11.30: Water monitoring systems and their role in drought management: Innovative configurations from the field (EN, RU) – Ms Eva Pek, FAO
• 11.30 - 12.00: Environmental monitoring systems (EN, RU) - Ms Federica Chiozza, Mr Rashed Jalal, Ms Fatima Mushtaq, Mr Dario Spiller  
• 12.00 - 12.15: Q&A session
• 12.15 - 13.10: Lunch break

Session 4 – Risk, vulnerability and impact assessment for inclusive and targeted planning

• 13.10 - 13.15: Importance of Drought Risk Management in Central Asia - Mr Viorel Gutu, FAO SEC SRC
• 13.15 - 13.30: Demystifying the concept of risk, vulnerability and impact assessments - Mr Daniel Tsegai, UNCCD
• 13.30 - 13.45:  Leveraging the global practices in vulnerability and impact assessment: a comprehensive approach to assessments and global endeavours  (EN, RU) - Mr Maher Salman, FAO
• 13.45 - 14.00: Gender mainstreaming into the planning process - Ms Anna Smetanova, Global Water Partnership
• 14.00 - 14.20: Drought risk assessment: emerging concepts and methods – Mr Dario Masante, European Commission's Joint Research Centre
• 14.20 - 14.40: Drought impact data: challenges, data models and analysis – Mr Dario Masante, European Commission's Joint Research Centre
• 14.40 - 15.00: Q&A session
• 15.00 - 15.15: Coffee break
• 15.15 - 16.15: Constructing national data repositories - Participatory session
• 16.15: Wrap-up  

 

WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2023

Session 5 – Drought mitigation measures in varying contexts

• 08.30 - 08.45: An overview of the mitigation measures at national level – Mr. Daniel Tsegai, UNCCD
• 08.45 - 09.00: The taxonomy of drought measures: a categorization of proactive and reactive drought measures (EN, RU) - Ms Sining Cuevas, FAO
• 09.00 - 10.15: Peer learning exercise: stocktaking of mitigation measures at national and sub-national levels – Country delegations
• 10.15 - 10.30: Q&A session
• 10.30 - 10.45: Coffee break
• 10.45 - 11.00: A results framework: a tool for the systematic monitoring of the implementation of drought plans  (EN, RU) – Ms Eva Pek, FAO
• 11.00 - 11.15: Global benchmarks in planning I: drought management plans across the European Union – Mr Dario Masante, European Commission's Joint Research Centre
• 11.15 - 11.30: Global benchmarks in planning II: Afghanistan Drought Risk Management Strategy (2019-2030) (EN, RU) – Mr Maher Salman, FAO
• 11.30 - 11.45: Best practices in gender action plans - Ms Anna Smetanova, Global Water Partnership
• 11.45 - 12.00: Q&A Session
• 12.00 - 13.15: Gap analysis of mitigation measures - Participatory session
  
• 13.15 - 14.15: Lunch break

Session 6 – Financial planning for integrated drought management

• 14.15 - 14.30: Enabling pathways for intensifying drought finance (EN, RU) - Mr Maher Salman, FAO
• 14.30 - 14.45: The taxonomy of financial instruments and financial sources for drought risk management (EN, RU) –Ms Eva Pek, FAO
• 14.45 - 15.00: Understanding costs of drought and benefits of proactive drought management for drought action plans (EN, RU) - Ms Sining Cuevas, FAO
• 15.00 - 15.15: Cost-benefit analysis of drought measures: constructing financial plans for action plans and gender marking (EN, RU) - Ms Sining Cuevas, FAO
• 15.15 - 15.30: Q&A Session
• 15.30 - 15.45: Coffee break
• 15.45 - 16.15: Expert discussion and feedbacks 
• 16.15 - 16.25: Report on the workshop outcomes
• 16.25:  Closing remarks