With climate change intensifying, drought is emerging as a critical global challenge. It leads to ecosystem disturbances, biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and water scarcity, threatening agricultural systems and food security, undermining livelihoods, and driving migration and conflicts. The GEF addresses drought in the land degradation focal area, including through drought-smart land management and drought mitigation in drylands. Also, through the Least Climate Change Fund (LDCF) and Special Fund for Climate Change (SCCF), the GEF seeks to reduce vulnerability to drought by enhancing adaptive capacity to climate change and strengthening resilience. The GEF's efforts to address the drought will continue.
This STAP information note presents background information on drought and its relevance to the GEF's work. STAP also wrote this note to outline its preliminary thoughts on drought for its side event and related discussions at the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. It discusses drought as a global concern, summarizes the scientific evidence on drought, and details its implications for GEF’s objectives. The note also highlights some actions to prevent or mitigate drought.
