Presentation made by Dr Bruce Stewart, Director of Climate and Water Department, WMO, GWP Consulting Partners Meeting, 26. August 2012, Stockholm, Sweden

1. Integrated Drought Management
WMO OMM
Programme
Building drought resilience to support global poverty reduction
A joint WMO/GWP programme 1

2. Why Integrated Drought
WMO OMM Management?
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3. Status and trends of drought
WMO OMM in Africa
Drought events per country from 1970 to 2004
• Two thirds of Africa is
classified as either
deserts or drylands.
• Climate change to
exacerbate drought:
Current climate
scenarios- driest
regions of the world
will become even drier
Source: Adapted from Noojin, Leah 2006. Factors that
influence Famine in Sub-saharan African Countries
3

4. Natural and Social Dimensions
WMO OMM of Drought
Decreasing emphasis on the natural event (precipitation deficiencies)
Increasing emphasis on water/natural resource management
Increasing complexity of impacts and conflicts
Agricultural Hydrological
Meteorological
Socio-economic
Time/Duration of the event
Source: Wilhite 2006
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5. Current trends in Drought
WMO OMM Management
Reflecting the three major components of
Drought management :
• Monitoring and early warning
• Risk and impact assessment
• Mitigation and response
The current trends are moving towards:
• Increased emphasis on drought policy and
preparedness
• Improved drought monitoring tools and early
warning systems
• Development of regional drought
preparedness networks
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6. Integrated Drought Management
WMO OMM Programme
• Integrated Drought Management (IDM) is a critical
component of disaster risk reduction programmes, climate
adaptation strategies and national water resources policies,
bringing together the needs of the different stakeholders
affected by droughts.
• Together with its partners, the joint WMO/GWP Integrated
Drought Management Programme (IDMP) aims to provide
preventive and demand-driven support mechanisms for the
communities, countries and regions affected by drought.
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7. WMO OMM
Regional Presentations
Regional Presentations on:
• Integrated Drought Management Program, CEE, Dr
Elena Mateeescu
• Drought Program, South Asia, Sardar Tariq
• Experiences on Drought Management in the
Mediterranean, Prof. Michael Scoullos
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8. IDMP - History and background
WMO OMM (1/2)
• Development Phase of “Associated Programmes” initiated through
the Global Water Partnership (GWP) in the late 1990’ies
• Idea: Develop an Associated Programme on Drought Management
(APDM) alongside the Associated Programme on Flood Management
(APFM)
• First Concept of APDM developed in HWRP in 2002
• Concept “on ice” with GWP due to consolidation of programmes
• Lobbying for APDM together with CHy and the then WCP, various
papers addressing drought holistically
• Development of a paper on drought risk management (Grabs,
Sivakumar/Stewart in 2008)
• Since November 2009: Renewed interest of GWP to enter in the
development of a APDM
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9. IDMP - history and background
WMO OMM (2/2)
• APDM to be built using the APFM success as a template, i.e. using
main building blocks of APFM as elements of APDM such as:
– Concept Paper (developed in 2011),
– Case studies,
– Side publications and “Tools”,
– Demonstration projects,
– Capacity building activities,
– HelpDesk on Drought Management involving Support Base Partners
• Added complexity: integration of water, weather and climate aspects
in integrated drought management, together with the socio-
economic domain and impact sectors (agriculture, water
management, land-use, etc.)
• In the building up phase of an APDM: Co-development of the
Programme by HWR and CLPA branches. Name changed to
Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP), webpage
created www.wmo.int/idmp, IDMP concept promoted at various
meeting (e.g. WWF6)
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10. IDMP - Objectives
WMO OMM
The central objective of IDMP is:
“To support stakeholders at all levels by
providing policy and management
guidance and by sharing scientific
information, knowledge and best practices
for Integrated Drought Management”
through actions finalized to:
1. build climate resilience; 4. respond to specific regional and
2. reduce economic and social national needs and requirements
losses; 5. alleviate poverty in drought-
3. cut across sectoral, disciplinary, affected regions
and institutional jurisdictions;
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11. IDMP - Approach
WMO OMM
1. To shift the focus from reactive to
proactive measures through drought
mitigation, vulnerability reduction and
preparedness;
2. To integrate the vertical planning and decision
making processes at regional, national and
community levels into a multi-stakeholder
approach including key sectors, especially
agriculture and energy;
3. To promote the evolution of the drought
knowledge base and to establish a
mechanism for sharing knowledge and
providing services to stakeholders across
sectors at all levels;
4. To build capacity of various stakeholders at
different levels.
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12. IDMP - Beneficiaries
WMO OMM
• People living in drought prone areas
• Governmental organizations and agencies with
improved capacities in the development and
implementation of national drought policies,
management (including land, water and agriculture
development) and preparedness plans including
monitoring and prediction;
• Regional and national organizations, agencies
and institutions engaged in monitoring, prediction,
and providing early warning of drought and taking
preventive actions;
• Non-governmental organizations and
government agencies responsible for the
implementation of drought response activities at
various levels.
The principal approach is to develop global co-ordination of efforts to strengthen
drought monitoring, risk identification, drought prediction and early warning
services and development of drought management knowledge base.
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13. IDMP - Next steps
WMO OMM
• Establishment of an Ad-hoc Steering Committee
• Establishment of an IDMP Technical Support Unit (TSU)
• Interaction with GWP and key associated partners
• Integration and incorporation of WMO efforts on:
– High-Level Meeting on National Drought Polices (HMNDP),
– Regional Climate Outlook Fora,
– Drought Monitoring Centres,
– Drought indices,
– Roving seminars for farmers, etc.
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14. IDMP - Structure
WMO OMM
• Should this be similar to Integrated
Flood Management
• Management Committee
• Advisory Committee
• Key Partners
• Associated Partners
• HelpDesk
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15. GENERAL DISCUSSION
WMO OMM
General Discussion on:
• Proposed Governance Structure
• Linkages in IDM Programme: sectors (water, agro,
meteorology), inter-regional (RWPs) experience
sharing, UN-agencies, international/regional
organizations and national governments.
• Key elements of IDM Programme
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16. WMO OMM
Conclusions
The IDMP will contribute to the global and local coherence of drought-related
efforts of existing organizations and agencies with regard to:
• Better scientific
understanding for drought
management;
• An improved knowledge base,
with better access to
information, knowledge
products and services;
• Drought risk assessment,
monitoring, prediction and early
warning;
• Policy and planning for
drought preparedness and Thank you for
mitigation across sectors; and coming
• Drought risk reduction and
drought response.
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