Regional Workshop for Eastern European countries

Topic Outline

The 1st Regional Workshop for Eastern European countries was held from July 9-11, 2013, in Bucharest, Romania.

Recognizing that the impact of droughts can be significantly reduced through a shift from crisis based, reactive and piece meal approaches of emergency and recovery strategies to a more proactive and risk-based drought management policies, several United Nations agencies approached the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) to start a new multi-year capacity development initiative. The organizations include the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

In a series of planned workshops, the first regional workshop for Eastern Europe, with the National Meteorological Administration of Romania as the host institution, was conducted in Romania based on expressed interest and capacity of its organization to host the workshop. The three-day workshop was attended by 24 participants from 10 countries in the Eastern European region: Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.

The purpose of this webpage is to present the detailed contents of the workshop.

Summary report_Eastern EuropeSummary Report

1. Background Materials

2. National Reports

3. Presentations

Session 1: Opening Session

Overview of the initiative and scope of the Regional Workshop

Keynote address: Risk based National Drought Policy: background, challenges and opportunities

Session 2: Country presentations on drought status and management strategies

Bosnia-Herzegovina
Croatia
Macedonia
Moldova
Montenegro
Romania
Serbia
Slovenia
Turkey

Session 3: Drought monitoring and early warning systems

Part 1: Introduction to drought monitoring and early warning systems; Data requirements for drought monitoring; Identifying occurence of/exposure to droughts; Indices and measurement methods; Successful examples

Part 2: FAO – Agriculture Stress Index System (ASIS)

Presentation of working group results and discussion

What are the current procedures/challenges on early warning systems?

What are the meteorological and hydrological networks, data quality, sustainability needed?

What mechanisms are in place for communicating and liasing drought monitoring and early warning information between national institutions?

Session 4: Vulnerability and risk assessment

Impacts of drought: Environmental, economic, societal considerations/implications; Significant secondary and tertiary impacts; Successful examples/ongoing initiatives targeting drought vulnerability and risk assessment

Presentation of working group results and discussion

Who is vulnerable (socially/economically) and why?

What are the mitigation policies and plans that reduce drought impacts/government intervention?

Who plays which role in developing the mitigation policies and plans that reduce drought impacts and vulnerability at all levels?

Session 5: Drought preparedness, mitigation and responses

Drought preparedness; Drought mitigation measures; Integration of drought response and recovery in drought plan

Presentation of working group results and discussion

Drought preparedness measures and stakeholders

Drought mitigation measures and stakeholders

Drought response and recovery measures and stakeholders

Session 6: Towards action plan – Developing Drought Management Policy

Process for preparing national drought policies; Institutional arrangements; Challenges and remedial actions; Successful case studies

Presentation of working group results and discussion

What are the challenges for developing national drought policies?

What are the institutional arrangements necessary for developing national drought policies?

What are the steps being undertaken for developing national drought policies?

Session 7: Wrap-up and concluding session

Synthesis and concluding remarks

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