Toward a drought-resilient Southern Africa – SADRI synthesis report

This synthesis report  provides an overview of the challenges posed by drought in Southern Africa, as well as the progress that has been made in recent years by the SADRI Pillar Teams to identify knowledge gaps and explore integrated systems and frameworks to build drought resilience in the region.

The report concludes that with climate change projected to exacerbate drought risks in Southern Africa in the coming decades, building resilience to the multi-sectoral impacts of drought will be crucial for countries to sustain economic growth and meet development goals. 

• As a starting point, countries need to overcome sectoral silos and build a strong foundation for proactive, integrated drought risk management by creating an enabling environment for risk-informed decision making. 
• Regional and national entities should prioritize the development and adoption of early-warning systems and enhance capabilities to assess drought vulnerabilities across core economic and interlinked sectors. 
• They should work with key stakeholders such as sub-national entities, water and power management authorities and providers, communities, and private sector financiers to identify policies, practices, and processes along with investment needs to enable proactive drought management. It is also important to foster collaboration between these entities through formal coordination mechanisms to determine the cascading impacts of droughts across economies and populations, deploy contingency measures, and mobilize resources at scale.