Drought action catalyst: inspiring innovation; transforming action

The scale of human suffering due to drought underlines the fact that we are not doing enough to minimize, mitigate, and prevent its effects. Drought events continue to be a leading cause of death, socioeconomic loss, and displacement. According to recent statistics from the
international disaster database EM-DAT,1 over 1.6 billion people in 117 countries were affected by drought effects between 2000 and 2024, causing 25,000 deaths and more than USD 240 billion economic loss in terms of drinking water, crop and livestock, hydropower, and livelihoods.
This crisis demands on-the-ground relief and mitigation actions. With that objective, an ambitious initiative called the Drought Action Catalyst will be launched at the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Conference of the Parties 16 (COP16) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Catalyst will be an action support platform for drought managers which will work with countries to deliver multi-sector, multi-scale, and multi-ministerial services and solutions that are needed to catalyze action on the ground to build drought resilience in communities and national economies.

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