Don Wilhite, climatologist and professor, has authored drought policy guidelines for the Integrated Drought Management Program (IDMP), under the leadership of the World Meteorological Organization and the Global Water Partnership. The guidelines, which provide a template that countries can follow for the development of a national drought management policy and drought preparedness/mitigation plans, were recently published online.
"The 10-step process that I developed originally for the preparation of drought mitigation plans for states in the U.S. has been modified to focus on national drought policy development, with accompanying drought preparedness plans as the instruments for the implementation of a national drought policy," said Wilhite, who currently serves as the chair of the management and advisory committees of the IDMP.
This policy is based on the principles of risk reduction rather than the traditional approach of reacting to drought – crisis management – which is ineffective, untimely and poorly coordinated between levels of government, Wilhite said.
"In addition, drought relief, which is commonly associated with the crisis management approach, actually increases vulnerability to future drought episodes by increasing reliance on government," he said. "The risk management approach is intended to build self-reliance."
Since July 2013, the IDMP has led and conducted numerous regional capacity building workshops across the world. Previous workshops have been held in Bucharest, Romania for Eastern/Central Europe, Fortaleza, Brazil for Latin American and the Caribbean and Hanoi, Vietnam for Asia and the Pacific region.
The next workshop is scheduled for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in early August 2014 for countries in eastern and southern Africa. Subsequent workshops will be held in North Africa/Near East region and West Africa.
The guidelines will be provided to all workshop participants and is also available online at http://go.unl.edu/ptjd.
— Mekita Rivas, Natural Resources
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/ptjd