Regional Workshop for West and Central Africa countries

Drought is the world’s costliest natural disaster and affects more people than any other form of natural catastrophe. Due to climate change and associated effects, the duration and intensity of drought is expected to increase in the coming decades. In order to address this pressing issue, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC), are collaborating to implement a UN-Water capacity development initiative on National Drought Management Policies (NDMP). The objective of this joint UN-Water initiative is to increase the capacities in developing countries and countries in transition on the development of risk-based national drought management policies.

After the successful completion of five regional workshops that took place in Eastern Europe (9-11 July 2013), Latin America and the Caribbean (04-06 December 2013), Asia-Pacific region (06-09 May 2014) , Eastern and Southern Africa (5-8 August 2014),  Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region (17-20 November 2014), the sixth and last workshop was held for West and Central Africa from 4-7 May 2015 in Accra, Ghana. The workshop was attended by 30 representatives from 12 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia and Togo.

Summary Report