FAO New Drought Portal is now online!

When it comes to the welfare of humanity and the world, nothing compares to a prolonged drought. More people have been impacted by this natural phenomenon in the last 40 years than by any other, and the percentage of the world that has been stricken by drought episodes has more than doubled. Water availability, agricultural production, food security, and rural livelihoods are just some of the many areas that feel the effects of climate change. Agriculture pays the highest toll, accounting for over 80% of direct impacts across all sectors.

The new FAO Drought Portal is a global knowledge-sharing platform for one-stop access to multiple resources to enhance the resilience of agriculture and improve food security. FAO new Drought portal is created with the aim of providing solutions, lessons learned, tools, and techniques that may be used immediately, all with the goal of facilitating the shift from crisis-led, reactive responses to risk-based, proactive ones. The Portal also establishes an interactive linkage with the UNCCD Drought Initiative Toolbox to reach a wider audience with a broader and more complete set of functions and information.

The Drought portal provides resources for the following objectives:

• improve livelihoods’ resilience by presenting field-tested solutions and lessons learned, ready-to-use tools and methodologies, and global knowledge resources on the three pillars of IDM;
• respond to emergencies by showcasing crisis-driven responses and post-disaster toolkits;
• support resource mobilization and allocation by hosting the Drought tracker tool; and
• facilitate the learning by including innovative learning materials related to all aspects of drought management.