Drought contingency plans and planning in the Greater Horn of Africa

A desktop review of the effectiveness of drought contingency plans and planning in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia:

This paper is a UNISDR contribution towards effective Drought Contingency Planning (DCP) for stakeholders and partners implementing drought risk reduction programmes in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). It attempts to convert findings, concepts and guidelines into a guidance document from critical gaps to bridge general drought preparedness, contingency planning and early response.

The paper points out that although 'Drought Contingency Plan' and 'Drought Contingency Planning' are used interchangeably, they are not identical. With respect to this review a few conceptual and operational definitions of terms and concepts related to drought are highlighted. Whereas the contingency planning process, guidelines and evaluation have been studied at the national government and inter-agency levels, there has been little research and examination on the critical gaps in contingency plans and planning for implementing partners for effective drought preparedness and response at community levels.

In an attempt to bridge the gap in the drought contingency planning process and content, the paper propose a framework and steps for combined considerations summarized in Table 5 and a contingency planning model in Figure 10. A continuum model is also proposed as a dynamic and participatory contingency planning and funding process that will work for the GHA. The paper also includes a guidance note for effective drought contingency planning, summarized in Annex 1.