As climate change intensifies, it is imperative for policymakers to address the escalating loss and damage it inflicts on vulnerable communities in developing countries. In India's Maharashtra state, these impacts are forcing rural families into life-altering decisions and migrations to work in sugarcane fields, where exploitative practices by contractors, including …
This report explores some of the thorniest water crises taking place across the developing world. In southern Iraq, severe water quality problems have triggered social unrest and violent protests. Recent droughts in India have prompted an exodus of farmers from the countryside in Maharashtra and dried up the reservoirs serving …
This paper combines data on weather shocks at the district level, monthly grain prices, and on wages in 82 retail markets in Ethiopia over 17 years to quantify the impact of drought on local prices and how this impact varies by month after harvest. The impact of drought on household …
This book discusses the impact of human-induced global climate change on the regional climate and monsoons of the Indian subcontinent, adjoining Indian Ocean and the Himalayas. It documents the regional climate change projections based on the climate models used in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and climate change modeling …
A new combined drought indicator (CDI) is proposed that integrates rainfall, soil moisture and vegetation dynamics. The performance of this indicator was evaluated against crop damage data from agricultural insurance schemes in five different areas in SW Spain. Results show that this indicator was able to predict important droughts in …
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the second most disaster-prone region in the world. Some 152 million people have been affected by 1,205 disasters (2000-2019). Although many hazards are cyclical in nature, the hazards most likely to trigger a major humanitarian response in the region are sudden onset hazards …
Subsistence livestock production in Mpakeni community, South Africa, is crucial to enabling rural households to diversify their livelihood and spread risks. However, the frequent reoccurrences of drought have resulted in shortages of nutritious pastures in Mpakeni’s communal areas, posing significant threats to livestock production. While exposures to drought conditions in …
This report gives a comprehensive overview of the new functions in the European and Global Observatories (EDO and GDO) that were created in 2019. This report completes the user documentation of the systems and is to be used in conjunction with the previous reports presented since 2010. The sectorial indices …
Question raised in Lok Sabha on Drinking Water Supply in Drought Affected Areas, 21/11/2019. To enable every rural household in all States/ UTs including Rajasthan to have Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) for providing potable water at the rate of 55 litre per capita per day (lpcd) by 2024, Government …
Drought is not a natural disaster and must be accepted as an enduring feature of the Australian landscape which climate change is only going to make worse, the drought coordinator has reported, warning the nation may see some areas become “more marginal and unproductive” as a result. The Morrison government …
The devastating drought in Southern Africa has seriously eroded the capacity of affected farming households and communities to produce in the 2019/20 season, which has already started in some countries. There is urgent need to scale up systematic recovery support and invest in resilience building initiatives to address the root …
Droughts have decimated communities and livelihoods in Africa for long. This year alone, over 45 million people across Africa, mostly in Eastern and Southern Africa, are food insecure due to prolonged droughts. The Africa Risk Capacity (ARC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) announced they will collaborate …
The purpose of this summary report is to present a synopsis of the findings derived from the 2018/19 Drought and Household Food Security Assessment. The overall objective of the assessment is to determine current levels of human vulnerability and the possible effects of the observed impacts of the rainfall levels …
Global warming is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of severe water scarcity (SWS) events, which negatively affect rain-fed crops such as wheat, a key source of calories and protein for humans. Here, we develop a method to simultaneously quantify SWS over the world’s entire wheat-growing area and calculate …
This working paper draws from the joint World Bank and World Meteorological Organization / Global Water Partnership Integrated Drought Management Program (IDMP) work stream on benefits of action and costs of inaction (BACI) for drought preparedness and mitigation. It suggests a methodological framework for assessment of BACI as a tool …
The UNCCD-SPI technical report “Realising the Carbon Benefits of Sustainable Land Management Practices: Guidelines for Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon in the Context of Land Degradation” provides decision guidance for the estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) in support of appropriate deployment of sustainable land management (SLM) technologies, in order …
This paper shows that Member States’ mismanagement of their water resources can be rectified through full implementation of the EU water law - the Water Framework Directive (WFD). In the face of climate change, droughts are becoming increasingly common and severe, and Europe is no exception. And yet, Europe’s water …
More than 15 million people are in need of aid as drought hits parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia again. Yet lessons from the devastating droughts of 2011 and 2017 are being ignored, putting lives at risk, warned Oxfam. The international agency is calling on governments to support the aid …
According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 2019 Synthesis Report on the State of Food and Nutrition Security and Vulnerability in Southern Africa, 41.2 million people in 13 countries are estimated to be food insecure in the 2019/20 year. Comparing the 11 Member States that provided data last year, …
Endale Terefe remembers a time when he used to go to school so hungry he had trouble staying awake during lessons. The 14-year-old student in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, was living with his aunt after his parents died. "My aunt has no money to buy food," he said. "So I …
Farming in the shadow of the world's highest mountains has never been easy - and climate change is making it even more difficult. Villagers are having to come up with innovative ways to grow their crops because of the lack of water.
