Drought Management Norms: Is the Middle East and North Africa Region Managing Risks or Crises?

2020 ◽  
pp. 107049652096020
Author(s):  
Theresa Jedd ◽  
Stephen Russell Fragaszy ◽  
Cody Knutson ◽  
Michael J. Hayes ◽  
Makram Belhaj Fraj ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Drought Management ◽  
Norm Diffusion ◽  
Drought Early Warning

The Middle East and North Africa region experiences severe socioeconomic and political impacts during droughts and faces increasing drought risk in future climate projections. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Sendai Framework and the International Drought Management Programme provide a global standard (a norm) to manage droughts through natural hazard risk reduction approaches. We use participatory engagement to evaluate whether norm diffusion has taken place in four countries. Data were collected in interviews, focus groups, workshops, and policy documents. Analysis reveals incomplete norm diffusion; stakeholders subscribe to relevant values, but national policies and implementation do not fully reflect the norm. Process tracing reveals that the availability of drought early warning data is a key barrier to risk reduction. Further more, a drought early warning system would not be feasible or sufficient unless paired with policy measures and financial mechanisms to reduce the political and economic costs of a drought declaration.

scholarly journals Preparedness or repeated short-term relief aid? Building drought resilience through early warning in southern Africa

Water SA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1 January) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Nhamo ◽  
T Mabhaudhi ◽  
AT Modi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Institutional Capacity ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Warning Systems ◽  
Drought Forecasting ◽  
Regional Drought ◽  
Drought Early Warning

Southern Africa is highly vulnerable to drought because of its dependence on climate-sensitive sectors of agriculture, hydroenergy and fisheries. Recurring droughts continue to impact rural livelihoods and degrade the environment. Drought severity in southern Africa is exacerbated by poor levels of preparedness and low adaptive capacity. Whilst weather extremes and hazards are inevitable, the preparedness to manage such hazards determines their impact and whether they become disasters. Southern Africa is often caught unprepared by drought as existing early warning systems lack the drought forecastingcomponent, which often results in reactionary interventions as opposed to well-planned and proactive response mechanisms. This study assesses the spatio-temporal changes of rainfall and aridity in southern Africa through an analysis of long-term precipitation and evaporation trends from 1960 to 2007. Stakeholder consultation was conducted in Madagascar, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe during the peak of the 2015/16 drought, focusing on overall drought impacts, current water resource availability, existing early warning systems, adaptation mechanisms and institutional capacity to mitigate and managedroughts as part of overall disaster risk reduction strategies. Average rainfall has decreased by 26% in the region between 1960 and 2007, and aridity has increased by 11% between 1980 and 2007. The absence of drought forecasting and lack of institutional capacity to mitigate drought impede regional drought risk reduction initiatives. Existing multi-hazard early warning systems in the region focus on flooding and drought monitoring and assessment. Drought forecasting is often not given due consideration, yet it is a key component of early warning and resilience building. We propose a regional drought early warning framework, emphasising the importance of both monitoring and forecasting as being integral to a drought early warning system and building resilience to drought.

scholarly journals Drought risk assessment: Towards drought early warning system and sustainable environment in western Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 106276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lida Sharafi ◽  
Kiumars Zarafshani ◽  
Marzieh Keshavarz ◽  
Hossein Azadi ◽  
Steven Van Passel
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Western Iran ◽  
Sustainable Environment ◽  
Drought Early Warning ◽  
Drought Early Warning System

scholarly journals Recognizing the Famine Early Warning Systems Network: Over 30 Years of Drought Early Warning Science Advances and Partnerships Promoting Global Food Security

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (6) ◽  
pp. 1011-1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Funk ◽  
Shraddhanand Shukla ◽  
Wassila Mamadou Thiaw ◽  
James Rowland ◽  
Andrew Hoell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Climate Extremes ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Warning Systems ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Drought Early Warning

AbstractOn a planet with a population of more than 7 billion, how do we identify the millions of drought-afflicted people who face a real threat of livelihood disruption or death without humanitarian assistance? Typically, these people are poor and heavily dependent on rainfed agriculture and livestock. Most live in Africa, Central America, or Southwest Asia. When the rains fail, incomes diminish while food prices increase, cutting off the poorest (most often women and children) from access to adequate nutrition. As seen in Ethiopia in 1984 and Somalia in 2011, food shortages can lead to famine. Yet these slow-onset disasters also provide opportunities for effective intervention, as seen in Ethiopia in 2015 and Somalia in 2017. Since 1985, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has been providing evidence-based guidance for effective humanitarian relief efforts. FEWS NET depends on a Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) to help understand, monitor, model, and predict food insecurity. Here we provide an overview of FEWS NET’s DEWS using examples from recent climate extremes. While drought monitoring and prediction provides just one part of FEWS NET’s monitoring system, it draws from many disciplines—remote sensing, climate prediction, agroclimatic monitoring, and hydrologic modeling. Here we describe FEWS NET’s multiagency multidisciplinary DEWS and Food Security Outlooks. This DEWS uses diagnostic analyses to guide predictions. Midseason droughts are monitored using multiple cutting-edge Earth-observing systems. Crop and hydrologic models can translate these observations into impacts. The resulting information feeds into FEWS NET reports, helping to save lives by motivating and targeting timely humanitarian assistance.

scholarly journals Early warning system on extreme weather events for disaster risk reduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Jacipt Alexander Ramón-Valencia ◽  
Jordi Rafael Palacios-González ◽  
Germán Rircardo Santos-Granados ◽  
Jarol Derley Ramón-Valencia
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Weather Events

The objective of this research was to propose a strategy based on the design and implementation of an early warning system (EWS) for extreme weather events. This project had the following phases: training for municipal and regional actors, preliminary technical diagnosis of the study areas, monitoring network, and the weather forecasts using numerical models WRF and GFS. This EWS is the result of the Macro-project EWS for Climate Events in the basins of the Pamplonita River and Zulia in the North of Santander (SATC), executed by the University of Pamplona and financed by the National Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) and the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ). The research concluded that the application of a disaster risk reduction strategy through an EWS for extreme weather events is an important tool and instrument for the planning of higher risk management because it helps anticipate disasters and consequently preserve lives.

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