Free Flow

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ater

ducation

and

nstitutional

evelopment

consumer sectors, improve their abilities to perform their core roles

and responsibilities, solve problems, define and achieve objectives,

understand and address needs and effectively work together in order

to ensure the safe and productive use of wastewater in agriculture”.

This definition carries important implications for the differ-

ent levels of cooperation and capacity development activities at

the individual, organizational and system levels. At the system

level, several government ministries with their own policies,

laws, regulations and standards cooperate and exchange experi-

ences on wastewater use in agriculture to raise awareness among

each other and learn from successful policies in similar contexts.

At the organizational level, government agencies and institu-

tions such as ministries of agriculture, water, environment and

health can cooperate and capitalize on their experiences from the

diverse nature of the respective ministries with respect to infra-

structure, human, financial and information resources. At the

individual level, various skilled professionals from public health,

agriculture, research, engineering, education and other sectors

can exchange experiences and share lessons with each other.

Cooperation is at the heart of the SUWA project structure:

between individuals, between institutions and organizations, and

between governments. Through its regional workshops and online

platform

, the project has:

• drawn on the international expertise, standards and innovations

of various expert groups and research institutes involved in the

spirit of cooperation work

• enabled knowledge and technology sharing among participants

and learning from each others’ experience of best practice

implementation, especially those between planning and

management bodies from various developing countries

• ensured the cooperation of UN-Water members and partners as

well as other collaborative partners of the project

• improved knowledge and skills on the safe use of wastewater

in agriculture, also acquired through the exchange of lessons

learned and the cooperation of participants with each other.

Capacity Development to Support National

Drought Management Policies initiative

Drought is one of the world’s worst natural hazards,

with long-term social, economic and environmental

impacts, and often referred to as a “creeping phenom-

enon”.

Generally, droughts emanate from a deficiency

of precipitation extended over a long period of time.

Yet there is no single, universally accepted definition

of drought because of its multifaceted nature and its

diverse impacts across regions.

What is clear, however, is that the impacts of

drought are diverse and complex in nature. The most

direct impacts include reduced crop yield, diminished

rangeland and forest productivity and low water levels.

Drought threatens livestock as well as wildlife and fish

habitats while it increases fire hazard. According to the

International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction in

1995, drought accounts for 33 per cent of the people

affected by natural disasters, 22 per cent of the damage

from disasters and 3 per cent of the number of deaths

attributed to natural hazards. Though drought affects

virtually all climatic regions, those most affected

include the horn of Africa, Australia, Brazil, Central

Asia, China, England and Wales, India, South-Eastern

Europe and the United States of America. Drought is

expected to increase in frequency and extent due to

climate change. The fraction of land surface area expe-

riencing drought conditions had grown from 10-15

per cent in the early 1970s to more than 30 per cent

by early 2000.

The newly started UN-Water initiative on

Capacity Development to Support National Drought

Management Policies was launched in March

2013. Under UN-Water, the World Meteorological

Organization, United Nations Convention to Combat

Desertification, FAO and UNW-DPC will cooperate

in this initiative throughout 2012-2013 to raise the

capacity of stakeholders at all levels to support the

development of risk-based national drought manage-

ment policies, based on elements proposed in the

compendium of drought management policy.

Despite the repeated occurrence of drought and

its tremendous effects on livelihoods and economies

throughout human history, few concerted efforts are

taking place to formulate and adopt national drought

management policies. Moving countries away from

crisis management to a more proactive, risk-based

approach to national drought management policies

requires the involvement of stakeholders at different

levels. To ensure the effectiveness of a transition to

the new paradigm, capacities need to be developed in

various ministries and national institutions.

The differences between countries in terms of their

vulnerability and institutional capacities will call for

different drought management policies. As drought

management strategies need to take into account the

specific national contexts of existing capacities and

priorities, no single, optimal drought management

strategy can be prescribed for all countries.

The impacts of drought are diverse and complex, threatening crop yields,

productivity, livestock and wildlife

Image: Curt Carnemark