Official Launch of International Drought Resilience Observatory (Phase II) - Action Dome, UNCCD COP17

Guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to the launch of phase two of the International Drought Resilience Observatory, IRO.
So we have spent much of today all today talking about a fundamental shift from reacting to drought once it becomes a crisis to anticipating it and building resilience before it strikes.
But to anticipate risk, fast, we need to understand it.
So where are the vulnerabilities? How resilient are countries today? Where are the gaps? And crucially, how do we turn an enormous amount of data and knowledge into information that policymakers can actually use? That is the ambition behind it.
What began as a concept around COP 15 and developed through four pilots stories presented at CP 16 in Rad now reaches an important milestone here at CP 17, the launch of an operational Beta platform with expanded country coverage and the new and exciting Throughout resilience index.
Over the next hour here, you will hear fast from the political partners behind this agenda, and then we'll look under the Bunnet of ID itself, what it does, how it works, and how countries can use it.
To open our session, it's my pleasure and my honor to welcome Andrea miss Amarillo, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN CCD.
Andrea, the stage is yours.
Good afternoon, colleagues, friends, and it's really my pleasure to be here with you during this lounge of the phase two of ER.
As you know, we are seeing the news and really understanding the dramatic effects of drought in different parts of the world, the dramatic effects of drought in our economies, the dramatic effects of drought you can name it for the different companies.
Value chains, everything.
So now more than ever, we really need the good policy frameworks, the good incentives, and also the good investments.
But normally to do so, we require information.
We really need to do based on science, on data, and this is what ER is about.
To try to put together a lot of this complex information and generate this accessible data for decision makers, for ministers, for presidents, for CEOs, but also for those community leaders, for those that are managing utilities, water utilities, or companies that are generating electricity coming from hydro generation.
And we can continue mentioning and mentioning And the wonderful of this tool is that we're using state of the art data, artificial intelligence, but we're also trying to facilitate that you have access to a lot of the information that has been generated by official sources.
Um, and it's not only about the drought itself.
I think that the most important element is to understand resilience and how do we measure resilience and why this is so important right now because we have the RIA Global Drought resilience partnership that will be and start operations very soon.
And the idea is that with these and some existing mechanisms that are there that we are launching as well, like the droughts resilient Investment facility and the different parallel funding that have been committed that we can start mobilizing investments in different areas.
But we want to know if these investments are generating impact.
This is where the tool will give us information to see if we are generating impact on one side, but also sometimes where it is better to invest based on different criteria.
I think that it's very excited and of course, I would like to really thank the governments of Spain and Senegal because It is under the International Drug Resilience Alliance that a lot of these efforts have been promoted.
This articulation under ER with the RO Global Drug Resilience Partnership, with the DRF it's showing that all these different platforms play a role and that by coordination and articulation, we can really generate concrete results.
So today with this lounge, it's very exciting.
The index, there has been a lot of robust technical discussions and meetings, and all these complexity being there in either deploy in a friendly manner for every user that can be challenged with all the decisions on how to build drought resilience.
So thank you so much and very much looking forward on this conversation.
Many thanks, Andrea.
Thank you so very much.
Now, before we explore the platform itself, I'd like to bring in four different perspectives on why information matters.
From the leadership of the International Drought Resilience Alliance, the Cop 16 presidency, and the European Union.
I'd like to invite our four distinguished speakers to come and join me here onstage.
Please join me in welcoming His Excellency Allgoyv, Minister of Environment and Ecological Transition of Senegal and Idra Cochir welcome.
Nina Marty One, ambassador and head of delegation of the European Union to Mongolia.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Maria Jesus Rodriguez De Sanstros Director General for Forest Policy and Desertification Control at Spain's Ministry for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge.
You are also Ira, co chair.
And last but not least, Nazim Ibrahim Asi, who is Executive Director of the Regional Center for Climate Change.
Welcome.
A very warm welcome to all of you.
We have about 25 minutes together, but maybe before we start, we could hear from the chief scientist at UACCT.
I have to excuse, but I have to run back to the negotiations.
They're sliding media now, I apologize to all of you profusely.
But I'll start.
I'm a professor, so I'm going to start with a question.
Your rainfall is dropping.
It's been dropping for months.
Is your country experiencing water scarcity? How many yes? Put your hand up if you say yes, your rainfall is falling.
Are you experiencing water scarcity? Not necessarily.
Depends on whether you're resilient or not.
It depends on your land, whether you have organic matter in the soil, meaning you have higher water holding capacity in those soils.
It depends on whether or not you're planting diversity crops.
Most of you are.
That's resilience.
That's the space that we're in.
Scientists, he included, would be the first ones to tell you that you can't even define it, much less create an index and an entire system to communicate it.
And yet, you can't get those numbers.
If you can't have all of that information, how can you make a decision? How do you know you've planted too many hectars thirsty crops? How can you put this together? That's the whole point behind this index.
The ambition of this index and the whole point behind putting all of this into artificial intelligence oriented system, tapping many streams of data to put you in a better position to make very, very difficult decisions.
It isn't, you have to remember, science is about uncertainty, and getting out as low as we can get.
It's about correlations and getting them as tight as we can get.
Science doesn't give you the answer.
You as policymakers, synthesize often incommensurate data in order to make decisions.
You don't have algorithms for everything.
But with this approach that dR is trying to provide, it's giving you greater and greater access and the ability to manipulate this some information.
And with an index that gives you a general story to start from, you can at least monitor is it going up or down.
And I'll finish with this.
The Rhine River is almost impossible.
The Danube no longer provides enough water for the nuclear power plants.
Nobody is watching because they're thinking, we've got plenty of water in Europe.
That threshold was crossed.
If these systems were in place, the indication of proximity to that problem would have been in the decision makers hands years ago.
Now we have to be there.
That's Hedro and I thank you all very much for the chance to speak with you.
Many thanks, Baron Joseph, Chief Scientists as UN CCD.
It was important to have you with us even briefly here today.
Let me return to our discussion here onstage.
I'd like to start with Minister Duf if you allow me, as co chair of the International Drought Resilience Alliance.
From Senegal's perspective as co chair, why does an observatory like IDR matter to the broader global effort to build drought resilience? Thank you very much.
I just wanted to say welcome to some Ara new members countries, just as the Minister of Environment of Senegal.
And new member, which are research institutions and some country partners.
And also to thank the UNC City Secretariat for convening this plenary session and Inge also Spain as co chair.
Just wanted to say that yes, displnary session is something very important because dra is an initiative that Segal was engaged in since the beginning and we know that it is focusing on an issue that Senegal was experiencing more than now 50 years, which is a drought.
We really appreciate what is being done under this initiative, and Senegal is committed and honored to really be a big player in this initiative to really help make sure that drought is given the attention that it deserve because it is one of the most important and most challenging issue that our countries are facing.
And we know that from now, from 2000 until now, the number of drought has increased by 29% showing that it become now one of the biggest global environmental issue.
It's what I wanted to just share as some introduction welcome and just saying that Senegal is again, ready to really push it to scale up this initiative because it is addressing an issue that really tackle our countries in terms of development.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Minister Du for now turning very naturally to the other co chair, of course, of Idra, Spain.
Maria Jesus, could you please tell us what role you see for Idra in helping countries move from understanding drought risk to actually strengthening resilience? How is it going to work? Well, thank you very much.
First of all, I would like to say that it's a pleasure to be here on behalf of Spain as co chair of EDR at the launch of the second phase of the International Drought resilience Observatory.
Well, as you already know, EDR was created was launched in the in 2022, and we have been working during four years, but the second phase has been working during the last two years because the first phase was presented in Cp 16 in Riyadh.
This initiatives is based in one of the main pillars of IDRA is strengthening the global framework for actions and knowledge sharing.
This instrument has been developed by the US CCD Secretariat, le University and many other commitments.
I would like to thank all the members of IRA for their support in the development of this.
We think that when we launch IDRA, we share a common ambition to provide decision makers with better information, stronger evidence, and practical tools to support a shift from reactive crisis management towards proactive drought resilience.
We think that RO is playing a major role in making this situation moving from proactive action to proactive action.
We think that is a platform that collect announced country case studies, including contributions from Spain from the major river basin we have in the country.
Is the Ebro River basin.
I think that this platform will have to translate data into practical lessons that can be adapted and replicated in many other countries.
I think this is the most important contribution of IDO to the decision makers.
Thank you very much.
Maria Jesus.
Its scalability, of course, is what is very interesting in this case.
Doctor Asiri, let's talk about the fact that Idru has traveled a fair bit between cops since he was first presented at Cops 16 in Riadh.
And I'd like to know what today's launch represent for you and what you hope Idru can now deliver.
Thank you, and it's my pleasure to join you today for this important milestone in the development of the International Drought Resilience Observatory.
And The Kingdom of Sadi Arabia is pleased to have been part of Ira's journey from its pilot phase launched at Cp 16 and re to the inauguration of phase two here at Cp 17.
At Cop 16, Saudi Arabia joined Senegal, Spain, and Australia as one of the four pilot countries contributing to an important effort to demonstrate how science data and evidence can support more informed approaches to drought resilience.
As part of the Riyad Global Drought Resilience Partnership, IDR is today moving from its pilot phase toward a fully operational global observatory with enhanced capabilities and broader country coverage.
It can help countries measures, monitor, and strengthen drought resilience while providing policymakers with the evidence needed to move from reactive crisis response toward proactive preparedness and resilience.
This transition comes at an important time.
Drought is not only an environmental challenge, it has far reaching implications for food and water security, ecosystems, livelihood, and economic development as climate risk.
Continue to evolve.
Strengthening our ability to anticipate, understand, and manage drought is becoming increasingly important.
In this context, ARO has the potential to make a valuable contribution by strengthening the evidence base available to countries and policymakers, enabling more informed assessment of drought risks and supporting a shift from reactive crisis management toward proactive preparedness and resilience.
To the development of the drought resilience index represents an important step towards strengthening the assessment of drought resilience, providing a useful framework to identify areas for improvement and monitor progress over time.
For Saudi Arabia.
This approach resonates strongly with our commitment to strengthening climate resilience through science, innovation and evidence based decision making.
We believe that robust climate and drought information is essential to developing effective policies and ensuring that investments and action are aligned with the risks and needs of countries.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, doctor Asuri.
Ambassador, I was saving you last because you have a very interesting perspective to share with us here today.
Because the EU brings considerable experience in drought monitoring and data, including through the Copernicus Drought Observatory.
So why is international cooperation around data assessment data and resilience assessment so important and in your own view, what value can IDR add here? Yes.
Today, clearly we have something to celebrate.
Of course, it became possible because of the efforts of many stakeholders.
I'm very glad that European Union is among them.
And as you heard also that contribution of our member states because we just heard Spain speaking.
Of course, represents a key outcome of the International Drought Resilience Alliance and a milestone in our ambition towards global drought resilience.
Building resilience is essential.
Making our population, our economic sectors, and financial system resilient is of utmost importance.
Making our ecosystems resilient is fundamental too.
However, it does not end there.
Building resilience also implies reducing the risks of shock propagating from one sector to another, from one region to another and reducing the negative feedback due to the loss of ecosystems functioning.
As you asked, I would answer that Ero addresses questions that were left unanswered for too long.
How can we monitor the path towards resilience of regions and countries? How can we measure drought resilience? How can we measure the effectiveness of the actions on the ground? Thanks to a solid approach based on anticipation, preparedness and adaptation, IDR will give the possibility to assess resilience as well as monitor its evolution.
IDR will concretely support countries and communities to enhance drought resilience.
But the journey does not end here thanks to effective technical and scientific cooperation.
A system locally adapted but globally coherent will be developed, a system that will give the possibility to all countries and regions to get a robust assessment of their resilience to drought, to evaluate actions and strategies, and look at future scenarios.
So it means we had already managed to go forward, but it's not the end of the story.
So we have what to celebrate, but we have also to plan for the future.
Thank you very much for that.
Ladies and gentlemen, can you please join me in thanking our wonderful panelists here who have shared the political case for better knowledge, better preparedness, and greater international cooperation.
Always.
Thank you so very much.
Now let's see what it looks like in practice.
Let's move from the ambition to the tool itself and look at what ID can actually deliver.
We have this short video for you to tell you more.
Let's take a look.
People to grow in going.
Growing, and to shape that people can use.
This is a platform to use to explore, detect and.
Join platform, sharing our feedback and help shape the future of people and anticipate prepare for that.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm delighted to be joined onstage by four experts and partners who have worked relentlessly to bring do to the stage here today.
Please join me in welcoming Edgar Gutierrez, who is do Senior Pol advisor and former Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica.
Hint Wildman, co founder and Director of Communications at YLCA.
Andrea Tretti, senior scientist and head of the Copernicus EMS Drought Observatory at the EU Joint Research Center, and Valentin Eich, is senior Water and climate Specialist with the Global Water Partnership and the World Meteorological Organization.
Welcome to all of you.
Thank you.
Edgar, I'd like to start with you, please, and the journey, the long and I'm sure at times difficult journey that has brought us here.
So IDR moved from a concept first discussed around CP 15 to four pilot case stories at CP 16 in Riyadh, like I mentioned earlier, and now to a fully operational Beta platform launching today here at CP 17.
The Beta version introduces the drought resilience Index, the DRI, and expanded country coverage.
So what is the value of this new drought resilience index? Thank you, Charlotte, and thank you to all of you for being here and getting E to the opportunity to know you and you to know I.
Yes, it has been quite a journey.
It has been something that we have worked since two years ago, as it was already mentioned.
And I would say that the added value of DRI, the drought resiliency index, is that it turns a large fragmented body of drought, environmental, social, infrastructure, and economic data into a clear comparable measure of a country's capacity to cope with drought before it becomes a disaster.
More specifically, let me just point out five specific points.
DRI shifts the focus from drought hazard to resilience.
It does not simply ask how right is it, but how ready is this con to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to route.
Route is different from drought resilience, two different concepts.
It provides a common benchmark.
The composite score lets governments compare resilience over time, much as the Human Development Index created a shared language for assessing development.
Makes weaknesses visible and actionable.
It identifies whether the key gap lies in the built environment or natural systems of communities or the economy.
So decision makers can prioritize the right interventions rather than applying genetic route responses.
Fourth, supports smart investment and policy.
Low scores act as warning signals helping governments and partners targets scars finance, expending national drought plans, and monitor whether resilience building efforts are working.
And finally, makes complex evidence usable beyond specialists.
Embedded in the DRI packages trusted global data into accessible visualizations and decision ready insights for users from local to global levels.
In one sentence, DRI gives a practical decision compass showing not only where doubt risk exists, but where resilience is weakest, what dimension needs attention, and where action and investment can have the greatest prevent the impacts.
That will be my answer to your question.
Thank you very much, Edgar.
That's for the evolution of DRO and the thinking behind the DRI, the index.
Let's get practical now and talk about how the platform actually works with you, In Wild Man.
Can you walk through DRO as it stands today? What are the core features of the platform? How does it actually work and what can a user do with it once they are in it? Thank you so much, Charlotte, for this question and very pleased and honored to be here in front of everyone and we are super happy with the pro we've done with IDRO.
We first launched IGO at COP 16.
It was a vision, a prototype since we have launched this working IDO platform, which is still under the Beta version.
And we have developed this platform with the team at UNCCD, the team in our research center, LLC, and a growing global network of countries.
And today, what this platform carry, it carries four main features.
So number one is the country profiles.
Each country gives you an overall drought resilience index score and that shows how the country perform across, we've heard it, the domains, the dimensions, which are the anticipate, prepare, and adapt, and the domains which are the built environment, the natural environment, people and community, and economy.
The analytical section allows stakeholders to look deeper and really understand where is the gap and what is the strength to help them to take more relevant action.
And then we have as number two, the country case stories, I think it's going to show you in a moment on the screen.
So for this, we've heard it.
So we've developed eight curated case stories with country partners.
We've presented four case stories at Rad for COP 16.
We have since integrated like four new case stories.
So we're showing the case stories at the national and regional level, and it's really like a way for other country to learn from what's happening on the ground.
And then we have number three.
It's the Is Globe, the interactive map.
This brings together satellite and weather information alongside the drought resilience indicators that allow users to explore both really current condition as well as the resilience across countries.
Then number four, we've heard it, the IDO KI, it's our AI assistant.
At any time stakeholders can ask any of question and you will get a response in plain language.
So I must point out is that DRO has been tailored to three different profiles.
So we have tailored this DRO for policymakers, for experts scientists, as well as for the member of the public and whoever is accessing that specific feature, the AI, will get the response based to the specific profile.
Something to note as well, which is very important about the KI that we have, incorporate it integrates the human in the loop Videsh where experts on our side review and help to validate and continuously improve the quality of the responses.
In a simple term, I will say that if I can summarize it in four points is that the index really show you where you stand.
Then the analytics tell you why the case story really show you what countries other countries are doing on the ground.
I would say number four, the IDOC, I really help stakeholders to understand the evidence.
So what you are seeing today is really the backbone of this EGD platform.
And our plan is really to grow this platform over time, and we are hoping that we will be growing it with the countries that will be using it and the stakeholders as well that will be using it.
This is why we are still calling it better.
We want to further improve this tool, and we are hoping that you will go behind on the desk at the back, screen, take a shot of the QR code and get access to DRO so you can view as well, explore this platform and share with us feedback so we can further improve this tool.
We really want to improve this tool.
We just at the moment presenting the backbone.
Thank you very much, T.
Yes.
Speaking on behalf of everyone here in this room, we are very impressed, not just because it presents a wealth of very valuable and important data, but also because it's extremely user friendly, including this AI chat bot, which is very impressive.
No one has an excuse not to use it.
Thank you so very much for that.
Of course, this project does not happen in isolation.
It builds on and complements existing and considerable expertise in drought monitoring capabilities.
Andrea, the EU Joint Research Center brings this deep expertise through the Copernicus Drought Observatory.
What has been its role in shaping IDR and how can the two platforms work together to give decision makers a better and bigger picture? Thank you.
That's indeed very intriguing questions.
First of all, it is a pleasure to be here because we started this journey all together and from the very beginning, we start indeed thinking how to shape Ira with all the different partners and institutions that were involved and the I think when it comes to the Copernicus drought Observatory, well, it's not just about the data because, of course, the Copernicus drough Observatory provides updated data, information on drought, but also predictions drought that can clearly contribute to support the efforts of the parties in addressing the pillars or a few pillars when related to the drought resilience.
Because indeed when it comes to resilience, the development, the further innovation of the warning system is the backbone.
But also the Copernicus drought Observatory and the efforts behind are providing innovation that can be then used in cooperation with Vitro and the partners of Vitro because drought is evolving and we should also let our approaches and methods and strategies evolve too.
In order to address the challenges and increasing complexity drought brings now and also in the next decades.
This is extremely important.
We cannot just let it go as is, but we need to constantly evolve and constantly look at different approaches, including, for instance, the evolutions and the innovation provided by the integration with optimal artificial intelligence related strategies.
That's the way I think in the future, the Copernicus global drought Observ in will keep collaborating.
Thank you very much, Andrea.
Thank you.
Valentin now, what has WMO and GWPs? I love acronyms.
A Copenin would have been their contribution to building IDR? And how do you see it fitting into the broader landscape of drought and water tools that countries are already using? Yeah.
Thanks a lot for the question and thanks a lot for the invite.
As Andrea said, we have been there all along through the journey with several other partners who are in the room as well who have, I think, similarly contributed.
It's really great to see this really now coming to the next stage.
Of course, your question is very pertinent.
We know there are perhaps to clarify first what the acronym stands for, the Global Water Partnership, and the World Meteorological Organization, we have together another acronym, which is the IDMP, the Integrated drought Management Program.
Therefore, we are working very closely with the National meteorological and hydrological services around the world, the NMHSs on monitoring, including drought monitoring.
I What really brings the added value of DRO is the resilience because we have been always struggling in measuring resilience, and this is, of course, the important thing that you need to know.
We know the biophysical values, we know a drought will come, or how it will perhaps affect a country, but we don't know how resilient this country is, how resilient the different sectors are different groups in the society.
Therefore, I think EDR can really cover this big gap, um, in defining this and bringing this information to the right decision makers in order so they can protect the livelihoods and the population and the affected goods as well.
So I think there is a big task for R ahead, and we are ready to accompany it on the way forward as well.
Many thanks, Valentin and many thanks to our speakers here for sharing their insights on how they built this fantastic platform and index, which will be so valuable to all the countries suffering from drought and beyond, of course.
Now, before we finish this session, we're going to have an official moment, of course, where we launch the first, well, operational Beta platform, and I'd like to invite all the people here who should be onstage for the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Please come and join us here onstage for that.
And a group picture because there's no ribbon to cut.
Let's have a big picture, please.
Thank you.
Let's have a round of applause and please invite all the stakeholders to the stage for this last picture, celebrating the launch of the platform.
Once again, congratulations, of course.
So this marked the official launch of phase two of the International Drought Resilience Observatory.
Let's have another round of applause, please.
To congratulate everyone here on stage.
And many thanks to all the speakers and partners to everyone who has contributed to bringing PDRO from concept to reality.
Now, of course, we do hope that countries will now start using it to understand risk, strengthen preparedness and build greater resilience before the next drought strikes.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.