Sharm El Sheikh, 8 November 2022 (TDI): On November 7, 2022, during the COP27, officials from more than 25 nations and 20 organizations created the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA).
International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) has been launched at the initiative of the Presidents of Senegal and Spain.
Motive for International Drought Resilience Alliance
IDRA seeks to facilitate action and aid nations in becoming more drought-resistant in the future. It aims to increase drought resilience through a more well-coordinated and efficient response.
Leaders agreed at COP27 to change the way the world responded to the increased risk of drought. They aim for immediate action for long-term resilience development.
As future droughts are predicted to be increasingly severe due to climate change. Recent droughts in Australia, Europe, the western US, Chile, the Horn of Africa, and Southern Africa demonstrate that no nation is free from its impacts.
In this regard, world leaders were persuaded to form the Alliance by Presidents Macky Sall of Senegal and Pedro Sánchez of Spain as a response to the effects of climate change.
Moreover, Presidents Sánchez and Sall stated in a joint statement that “our land determines how resilient we are to climate change.”
To guarantee the advancements we achieve towards each sustainable development objective is to increase resilience to drought disasters.
The alliance’s goal is to generate political support for making drought and climate change resilience a reality by 2030.
Furthermore, “we are in a race for drought resilience, and it’s a race we can win,” according to Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Despite being a natural hazard, drought need not result in disaster for people. The solutions are in ambitions, political will, and cooperation.
Fund for IDRA
New political commitments will strengthen the Alliance. A Euro 5 million seed fund by Spain and a pledge made by Kenyan President, William Ruto to plant billions of trees will contribute massively.
In this context, the Alliance urges leaders to prioritize drought resilience in national development and cooperation.
Involvement of other Platforms
To maximize benefits, the Alliance will also work with other platforms. These include the UN General Assembly and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to attain global early warning system coverage.
To be formally launched at COP27 in November 2022, IDRA was first announced by Spain at the 77th session of the UNGA in September 2022.
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