African drought forum supports stronger networks

Strengthening networks for knowledge management and information exchange on
drought such as the African Drought Risk and Development network (ADDN) was
a key focus of the 3rd African Drought Adaptation Forum, which took place in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia from 17-19 September. Through the ADDN, knowledge and good
practices in drought risk management are being shared between countries and
practitioners in Africa. Recent achievements of the network include the Drought Risk
Reduction Framework, which guides actions and national and local level to address
drought concerns in development. The drought forum itself was an opportunity
to directly share information on the latest methodologies, on-going activities,
programmes and networking for drought risk assessment, monitoring, mitigation and
preparedness. This included group input into revised editions of several publications:
such as the revised version of the UNDP-Drylands Development Centre (DDC)
publication Mainstreaming Guidelines: Drylands Development, the revised version of
the Drought Risk Reduction: framework and practices, and a forthcoming UNISDR
collection of good practices on drought. The event was jointly hosted by UNDPDDC
(Nairobi), UN Economic Commission for Africa and UNISDR Africa. The
approximately 80 participants included represenatives from governments, donor
agencies, the World Bank, the African Union Commission and UN organizations.