Reducing Drought Risk through Prevention, Early Warning and Anticipatory Action

Drought is a major risk to sustainable development, undermining water security, livelihoods, ecosystems and resilience worldwide. Amid recurring climate extremes, including El Niño-related drought conditions, this event will explore how prevention, early warning and anticipatory action can reduce drought risk and address water scarcity while accelerating progress toward SDG 6. The event will showcase integrated approaches grounded in the Sendai Framework and findings of the 2026 Global Assessment Report on DRR exploring drought-floods-food systems. Discussions will highlight partnerships among governments, UN entities, scientific institutions and development partners to strengthen risk-informed water management, drought preparedness and resilience. Ministerial representation and high-level participation from heads of entities is expected.

This proposal builds on existing water commitments, including UNDRR’s commitment on “Better data for water-related disasters” (UNDRR has established a new disaster tracking system, partnering with UNDP and WMO, to enable countries to systematically collect, analyze and apply data on hazardous events and losses and damages) and UNDRR’s support to implementing the Netherlands-funded “Water at the Heart of Climate Action” project as an Early Warnings for All-aligned project to support five countries in the Nile River basin.