Integrated Drought Risk Management Towards proactive drought management

Integrated Drought Risk Management Towards proactive drought management approaches February 2016, Climate Services for improved Water Resources Management in vulnerable regions to climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean DR. NATALIA LIMONES. CONSULTANT. nlimones@worldbank. org

Integrated Drought Risk Management Towards proactive drought management approaches Outline 1. World Bank previous actions on Drought Resilience. Some pilot experiences → What we did 2. Perspectives and next steps → What we plan to do

1. 1. World Bank Operations addressing Drought

World Bank Operations addressing Drought The World Bank intends to help governments, sectors, and Institutions to better manage disaster risk related to droughts in their decision-making processes There is no better way to build climate resilient societies than managing drought

WB Portfolio The number of WB Projects with drought activities is continuously increasing The funding for these Projects too

WB Portfolio Eight Global Practices (sectors) oversee the active projects → very cross sectorial phenomenon

WB Portfolio Number of projects Total funding (Million of USD) Most funded regions in the topic are Africa and Latin America and Caribbean

Notwithstanding the importance of drought in its portfolio, the World Bank does not have a corporate strategy on drought

1. 2. Workshops and Learning Sessions The workshop “Building Drought Resilience” in November 2014 The WB Water Week Workshop in May 2015

RATIONALE: not much attention paid to build preparedness and response in order to increase resilience to future droughts → Climate adaptation The objectives of the drought workshops were to: i) iii) ↑ awareness & collaboration: WB staff developing projects (TTLs) and client countries. Advise clients on how to use budgets to strengthen drought resilience; share good practices across the WB: characterization, monitoring, and mitigation; Share experiences and build relationships with the drought community: research institutions, other International Organizations, etc. Topics addressed: the socio-economic impact of droughts, drought monitoring and early warning systems and networks and drought mitigation through planning and policies + DISCUSSION ON WB GOOD PRACTICES, CHALLENGES, GAPS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Main reflections from the workshops What are the major challenges, gaps and opportunities for building drought resilience? What role should the World Bank Group play regarding them?

Gaps in the practice Need of a Systematic Proactive Approach in addition to Reactive Approach Socio-economic losses must be considered, but also global water security and ecological resilience, not only economic analysis Drought monitoring activities need improvement and coordination Need for more capacity building, knowledge transfer, data sharing and more access to information → community involvement Opportunities: the WB role Support hydro-meteorological networks and services improvement Promote free and open data exchange initiatives Promote indicators systems to measure drought vulnerabilities and drought impacts Support of user oriented Drought Monitoring & Forecasting Systems that include Vulnerability and Impact Monitoring Promote pilot projects to put in practice these approaches Build internal collaboration and Communities of Practices Work in collaboration with other International Organizations

1. 3. Some pilot experiences

WB approach to drought management

Support for drought management in Brazil Current drought in NE Brazil since 2010 is the worst in the past 50 -100, getting worse Drought resilience in Brazil Dialogue for a policy framework at national level Pilot program at state level in NE region Both activities enhanced the government’s capacity to manage droughts

Catalyzing concrete adaptation actions Level 1 – National and State Dialogue on a National Drought Policy Relevance and goals of a national drought policy Functions and responsibilities of various institutions involved Drought committees/councils foundation Level 2 – Northeast Regional Pilot Projects Pillar 1: Northeast Drought Monitor (Monitor de Seca do Nordeste) Pillar 3: Drought Preparedness Plans to mitigate risk and structural issues at multiple scales: o river basin o collective managed small dam o urban water supply systems o community level (rural rainfed agricultural areas)

Sahel Disaster Resilience Project Drought in Sahel since 2011 Key challenges to drought response/resilience: Single-purpose vulnerability studies (one sector at a time) Weak community collaboration (no feedback or info) Each country has its own system for food security analysis

Sahel Disaster Resilience Project Objective: increased resilience to extreme weather events and climate variability & change Components: Strengthening hydro-meteorological, climate, food security and DRM services Supporting Sharing regional institutions for DRM knowledge on water resources

WB support for drought management in Vietnam Current moderate drought causing significant damage in Ninh Thuan First diagnosis accomplished: Most basic water-related data exists; however, important efforts: data →information → management tools Lots of issues: monitoring network, reservoir operation and design, control of water use, water accounting, institutional collaboration, etc. More technical assistance is coming!

2. Perspectives and next steps. Synergies with the UNESCO new proposals

Expanding the pilot cases The WB intends to continue financing pilot innovative activities to reduce vulnerability to drought PURPOSE → A) understand the status of drought preparedness in the project area; B) incorporate new knowledge and facilitate the absorption of existing knowledge on drought resilience METHODOLOGY →pillars + flexible and context-specific TARGET →Drought-prone areas, prioritizing arid and semi-arid ones or with low-income settlements Linkages with UNESCO-IHP projects • “Addressing water security: climate impacts and adaptation responses in Africa, Asia and LAC”, intends to reduce vulnerability in pilot remote drylands and mountains areas immersed in poverty through indicators • “Cli. MWa. R-LAC” includes some pilot case studies for the application of the 3 pillars and to trigger policies for drought preparedness

Fostering internal awareness and knowledge sharing As a result of climate variability and change, more WB cross-sectorial teams are being requested to support client countries on drought 1. Internal Community of Practice on the issue 2. Help desk for questions from across the WB 3. WB strategic approach on the topic, based on all the discussion and good practices identified Linkages with UNESCO-IHP projects Cli. MWa. R-LAC is promoting a Co. P on drought management tools, so: • The WB Co. P can benefit from external communities of experts in particular facets of drought to tap into high level expertise and tools for the projects. • Equally, the Cli. MWa. R-LAC Co. P can benefit from the WB one to incorporate more experiences from the field and from other regions

THANK YOU!