Dr. Don Wilhite, professor emeritus of Applied Climate Science in SNR, attended and chaired the annual meetings of the advisory and management committees of the Integrated Drought Management Program on Sept. 14 to 15 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The IDMP was launched in 2013 at the High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy that was sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification and numerous other international and regional organizations. Wilhite also chaired the international organizing committee for HMNDP.
The scope of the IDMP is: to build climate resilience, reduce economic and social losses, and alleviate poverty in drought-affected regions of the world through an integrated approach to drought management, which cuts across sectoral, disciplinary, and institutional jurisdictions and is responsive to specific regional and national needs and requirements. The IDMP was formed by WMO and the Global Water Partnership.
The purpose of the IDMP’s annual meetings is to review progress from the past year on a variety of projects and discuss project priorities for the next 1 to 3 years. The membership of the advisory committee is composed of approximately 30 partner organizations, including the National Drought Mitigation Center and the Daugherty Global Water for Food Institute. Dr. Mark Svoboda, NDMC climatologist, attended the advisory committee meeting.
Coupled with the advisory committee meeting was a meeting of the IDMP’s management committee. This committee is composed of members of the technical support unit for the IDMP, representing both WMO and IDMP, Wilhite as chair and two representatives from the advisory committee.
Following the IDMP meetings, Wilhite also chaired an expert meeting on Sept. 16 that was focused on the costs of inaction vs. action for drought management, i.e., crisis vs. risk management. This was a topic discussed at the 2015 IDMP meeting and was viewed as a critical issue that required greater attention. A literature review was conducted by a consultant for this expert meeting and discussion centered on this report and next steps to elaborate this issue further, including an international workshop.
For more information on the IDMP, visit http://www.droughtmanagement.info/.
— Don Wilhite
More details at: http://snr.unl.edu