Interested persons were invited to join our special evening event on “drought challenges and drought solutions” on 22 January 2020. They could take part in a launch of a new book on options for developing countries to deal with droughts and a screening of a documentary film “the end of famine” in Ethiopia, followed by an open discussion with a high-level panel of experts from national and international organisations located in Bonn.

Drought is one of the most “misunderstood” and most damaging natural hazards to human wellbeing and ecosystems alike. With climate change, even in a green country like Germany, drought challenges are visibly increasing. Global initiatives under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and climate change mitigation and adaptation under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), both based in Bonn, support countries in their efforts to achieve drought resilience and adapt to climate change. But while many efforts need engagement at national levels and global organisations have to search for joint interests and compromises across nation members, most interventions to increase drought resilience have to start from the local level realities and need to be tailored to suit their local socio-ecological and economic environments. This is an obvious tension! The event teased out options for integrating efforts by the ‘local communities’ and ‘global actors’ and how best to shape the interface between the two. During the event, we

• screened a recent premiere of the film “the end of famine” showed how local people in drought-stricken northern Ethiopia build up local resilience and contrasts this with traditional emergency aid which has to step in when all other means of self-help have failed.
   
• launched a new book “drought challenges – policy options for developing countries”. It provides numerous practical evidences of how countries can optimally combine early warning with early action through vulnerability assessments, preventive and remedial actions.
   
• Engaged with a high-level panel of experts from UN agencies located in Bonn (UNCCD, UNFCCC), the global network of local governments for sustainability (ICLEI), science (DIE) and the filmmaker (University Bonn) to discuss how global initiatives do or should be designed to help local communities, people and ecosystems to improve their resilience against droughts.