Built for Drought Resilience: Proposing a Global Drought Resilience Capacity Index

This report takes a first step towards addressing a key gap in drought resilience monitoring by proposing a Drought Resilience Capacity Index (DRCI) as a pragmatic, globally comparable and actionable tool to improve drought resilience. The index consists of 3 dimensions – anticipate, prepare and adapt – and 9 interlinked indicators, covering the essential elements needed for integrated and proactive approaches to drought management. For each country, the index score, and underlying dimension and indicator scores, provide a picture of strengths and weaknesses of the capacity of governance and management systems for drought resilience. The three dimensions are aligned with the work of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the International Drought Resilience Observatory (IDRO). The proposed index requires piloting to test applicability. The report also contains an analysis of how multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and other global frameworks address drought through their targets and indicators, identifying overlaps, gaps and opportunities for harmonisation, in the design of post-2030 frameworks. The report, and separate Summary for Policy Makers, are available in English, French and Spanish.