The conference had a number of informative sessions to brainstorm and propose ways to enhance drought resilience. The key segments included:
- Technical segments: This included discussions on the following: Strategic framework for drought management and enhancing resilience to drought in Africa; drought monitoring and early warning systems (national, regional and global) with a view to enriching the strategic framework for drought management and enhancing resilience to drought in Africa; drought risk management with focus on vulnerability assessments; enhancing long term drought preparedness and measures to mitigate the impact of drought; innovative sources of finance for enhancing resilience to drought events; appropriate response and relief measures during and after drought events.
- Side events: A number of side events were conducted aimed at sharing experiences of drought related work on the African continent and beyond. Lessons and knowledge management materials were shared as way of capacitating stakeholders in drought management. In addition, GWP participated in the launch of the Handbook on drought indicators and indices.
- High level segment: This involved discussions of the drought framework document by high level personnel from the African Union states (Ministers), UN agencies (heads of delegations), etc. The aim was to dialogue on the proposed Windhoek Declaration aimed at agreeing on commitments to combat droughts on the African continent.
The meeting reached the following outcomes and follow up actions:
- The ADC strengthened partnerships and cooperation within AU member states to support the development of new and the improvement of existing national policies and strategies on drought management.
- There was commitment that countries would start (those that are not yet involved) the process to streamline their policies to initiate national drought policies.
- The white paper i.e. the strategic framework for drought management and enhancing resilience in Africa was comprehensively discussed and adopted
- The key output of the meeting was to come up and adopt the declaration (hereafter called the Windhoek Declaration) aimed at combating droughts on the African continent
- GWP and WMO launched a handbook of drought indicators and indices during one of the side events.
- Some key partners were engaged e.g. Africa Risk capacity, African Development Bank etc. Follow up will be made to continue discussions with potential partners
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