19 May 2024— Far from being confined to arid regions, droughts occur around the world, touching alpine mountain ranges, small islands, and even tropical forests. As the planet warms, scientists, practitioners, and policy-makers are joining forces to understand the changing face of drought; how it is affecting the very foundations of healthy individuals, economies, and societies; and what works best where to prepare for it.

At the Water for Food Global Conference 2025, held from 28 April to 2 May at the University of Nebraska under the theme ‘A resilient future: water and food for all’, 400 experts and organizations from around the globe discussed what it takes to build drought resilience, and presented state-of-the-art tools and approaches to manage risks before they become disasters.

Here are some of the recommendations, success stories, and initiatives from participants showing the way on drought resilience:

Track drought impact data

Successful drought policies are built on three pillars: monitoring and early warning; vulnerability and impact assessment; and mitigation, preparedness and response. However, not all pillars have received the same attention to date.

“Collecting impact information was not a typical part of drought early warning systems, but to me, is like collecting precipitation or temperature data,” said director of the National Drought Mitigation Center/ University of Nebraska-Lincoln(NDMC/UNL) Mark Svoboda. “It is a gauge of where you’re at risk, and it allows us to take action so that when drought comes, we lessen the impact.”

Tracking  impacts can point to underlying vulnerabilities, helping decision-makers figure out where to focus efforts ahead of the next drought; showing where exactly to direct relief; and improving our collective knowledge of how drought indicators affect people, the economy and the environment.

Crowdsourced data collection, including through citizen science, is one way to capture impact. One example is the NDMC’s ‘in situ’ Condition Monitoring Observer Reports, or CMOR, a mobile-to-map system that allows farmers to complete a survey and upload geolocalized photos of the effects of drought on their land. The report immediately shows as a dot on an online map, whose information can be searched by different criteria.

“We invite participants to submit a photo every week, at least during the growing season, so we know what ‘normal’ looks like,” said drought impacts expert at NDMC Kelly Smith. “Having a baseline for comparison makes it easier to spot droughts when they start developing.”

The NDMC is currently working with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) —an IDRA partner— to create a drought impact tracker for African countries.

In Europe, the Czech Republic is also implementing a drought monitoring and impact reporting system of its own, which relies on a network of designated farmer observers. According to Smith, the program helped mobilize around USD 300 million from the European Union in 2017-2018, showing how the system helps farmers help themselves.

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Integrate health and drought management

In 2018, as Cape Town (South Africa) was on the brink of becoming the world’s first major city to run out of water, authorities and first line responders were confronted with a stark reality: very little information was available globally on how to address public health challenges linked to severe drought.

The direct impacts of tsunamis and earthquakes are headline grabbers, but the indirect pathways typically triggered by drought cause a lot more deaths. Health problems can manifest themselves weeks to years after the onset of a drought as a result of heat waves, wildfires, changes in water and food quality and availability and diseases transmitted by vectors like mosquitoes.

“We need to integrate health in drought preparedness and planning, and the other way around, to save lives and reduce impacts on society,” said director of the Water, Climate and Health Program at the University of Nebraska Jesse Bel, who noted that drought can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and serious mental health problems.

A first step is to include drought in community health needs assessments, while taking health impacts into account in drought vulnerability assessments. Additionally, Bell’s team has been developing resources like messaging toolkits to help public health departments communicate drought-related health risks and mitigate their impact on communities.

“To date, there is only one strategy integrating health into drought management and that is in the US, so there is a big opportunity to expand the type of work we do around the world, tailoring approaches and materials to each context,” he said.

Aim for whole-of-watershed solutions

In the Colorado river basin, US, a 20-year megadrought has combined with water over allocation, and rising temperatures to create a national crisis that imperils water availability, food production, and sanitation in large swaths of the territory, including highly populated cities.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is supporting solutions that look at the watershed as a whole, implementing initiatives across the natural, built and management systems. For example, by improving forests at the higher part of the watershed; enhancing agricultural water systems to boost their efficiency; and enabling more sustainable water-sharing agreements between users.

According to Director of Water Security, Science and Innovation at TNC Kari Vigerstol, watersheds around the world are benefiting from nature-based solutions. For instance, revolving around the protection and restoration of ecosystems like wetlands, peatlands, and forests; the removal of invasive vegetation; the sustainable management of agricultural lands and rangelands; and the enhancement of aquifer recharge.

“Healthy lands and waters are foundational for system resilience, but the very ecosystems that underpin this resilience are suffering under more intense and frequent droughts,” alerted Virgestol.

Implement drought plans towards a global goal

UNCCD program officer and drought resilience expert Daniel Tsegai underscored that harsher droughts are here to stay and they must be systematically addressed head on before they strike.

“We must understand that droughts are going to happen and take action today to mitigate future —not only present— drought risks,” explained Tsegai. “For example, by improving water supply and storage systems, promoting climate-smart agriculture, and investing in healthy lands to reduce the impacts of drought.”

One way countries can accelerate action is by learning from each other, a mission the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) is supporting through a series of regional and global communities of learning and practice, or CLPs. These online platforms are open to scientists, practitioners, and decision-makers looking to exchange experiences and knowledge on what works were..

As drought is a global challenge, Tsegai also pointed to the importance of agreeing on a global policy instrument to tackle drought, followed by a global goal on drought resilience and specific sub targets that make it possible to measure progress.

“Then, we can break down what drought resilience means in every context; for some, the focus may be on early warning; for others, on land restoration, or water harvesting. Drought is going nowhere, so it is on us to take action.”