The 19th World Meteorological Congress (Cg19) was held in Geneva, Switzerland from 22nd May to 2nd June 2023. The World Meteorological Congress is WMO’s top decision-making body. Its decisions are implemented by all WMO constituent bodies and the Secretariat; the Executive Council oversees the implementation of Congress decisions.
In this occasion, the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) presented a proposal to promote IDMP activities in global coordination to strengthen drought monitoring, risk identification, drought prediction and early warning services. Drought management and its pillars are very important for the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, particularly, with increasing occurrence of drought in recent years.
More than 16 Member States of the World Meteorological Organization reacted about the activities in drought management document presented in the 19th World Meteorological Congress.
The members noted the socio-economic impacts of drought and requested more coordination and capacity building, including involvement of the regional bodies, as well, indicated that drought is increasing in occurrence, including in countries that traditionally did not suffer from this (e.g., Czech Republic). Also, Morocco had 2021/22 as the driest year for the country since meteorological records began and has also suffered from consecutive drought years.
In addition, members congratulated the effort and development of the Global Drought Classification System (GDCS) which depicts current drought conditions across the globe using a “bottom-up” approach. This means that the drought conditions on each continent are assessed by the Nations of that continent. These “continental Drought Monitors” are then provided to NCEI and merged here into this Global Drought Monitor product. Global drought indices and indicators are also provided as a supplement to help show current conditions.
Finally, IDMP also mentioned that is currently planning for the High-Level Meeting on National Drought Policy +10 (HMNDP+10) and highlighted that this document would facilitate resource mobilization and planning for this event.
