THINKING AHEAD DROUGHT RESILIENCE AND COVID-19 WASAG WORKING PAPER WASAG WORKING GROUP ON DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS CB5547EN/1/07.21 i Thinking ahead Drought resilience and COVID-19 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2021 Required citation: FAO and UNCCD. 2021. Thinking ahead: Drought resilience and COVID-19. WASAG working group on drought preparedness. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb5547en The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) or United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companiesRequired citation or products: of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsedFAO and orUNCCD. recommended 2021. Thinking by FAO ahead: or UNCCD Drought inresilience preference and COVID to others-19 .of WASAG a similar workingnature thatgroup are on droughtnot mentioned. preparedness . Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb5547en The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO or UNCCD. ISBN 978-92-5-134674-7 © FAO and UNCCD, 2021 Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike . 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode) The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) or United Nations that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companieslicensed under or products the same of or manufacturers, equivalent Creative whether Commons or not these license. have If abeen translation patented, of doesthis work not imply is created, that these it must have include been the following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture endorsed or recommended by FAO or UNCCD in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original English edition shall be the authoritative edition.” The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO or UNCCD. Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of ISBN 978-92-5-134674-7 the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be in © FAO and UNCCD, 2021 accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode). figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided rests solely with the user. that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons license. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the can be purchased through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. [email protected]. The original English edition shall be the authoritative edition.” Cover photographs: @FAO/Sumy Sadurni, ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user. Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [email protected]. Cover photographs: @FAO/Sumy Sadurni, ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano iii Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 DROUGHT AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES 3 INTERACTION BETWEEN COVID-19 MEASURES AND 9 OTHER STRESSORS ON DROUGHT VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES POST COVID-19: WHAT INVESTMENTS ARE NEEDED? 13 HOW CAN RESEARCH HELP IMPROVING THE RESULTS FROM 17 INVESTING IN MORE DROUGHT-SMART RESILIENT SOCIETIES? CONCLUSION 21 BIBLIOGRAPHY 22 v Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the WASAG Support Team and specifically the editorial support provided by Mr. Antoine Asselin-Nguyen at FAO. Lead Author Subramanian V Saravanan United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Contributing authors (in alphabetical order) Festus Asaaga Robert Stefanski UK`s Center for Ecology & Hydrology Agricultural Meteorology Division World Meteorological Organization Jesse E Bell Department of Environmental, Stephane Lako Mbouendeu Agricultural, and Occupational Health Water Youth Network University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health Mark Svoboda National Drought Mitigation Center Bethan V Purse School of Natural Resources UK`s Center for Ecology & Hydrology University of Nebraska-Lincoln Caroline M King Daniel Tsegai UK`s Center for Ecology & Hydrology United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Rachael McDonnell International Water Management Institute Oliver Vivian Wasonga Department of Land Resource Maher Salman Management and Agricultural Technology Land and Water Division College of Agriculture and Veterinary Food and Agriculture Organization of the Sciences, University of Nairobi United Nations Jia Xiaoxia United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Drought and infectious diseases 1 ©FAO/Simon Maina ©FAO/Simon Introduction COVID-19 is a defining moment for strengthening drought resilience of society and managing ecosystems more sustainably. Both recent and historical experiences indicate that disease outbreaks very often follow extreme weather events. Drought, combined with other ecosystem changes such as habitat degradation, preceded the COVID-19 outbreak and has been associated with many other types of epidemics in the past. This paper highlights that the interactions between human, ecosystems and ecology often govern drought-linked disease. Factoring these interactions and their impacts on vulnerable communities and their environment is important for drought preparedness, resilience, and recovery. It also calls for increased investments and defines important steps for government and international agencies in responding to post COVID-19 period and in building back better for a more drought-resilient society and ecosystems. These steps require