It is a phenomenon that affects more and more regions of the world under the effect of climate change. This is why an “International Alliance for Resilience in the Face of Drought” was launched on Monday on the sidelines of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Under the aegis of Senegalese President Macky Sall and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, this alliance will bring together more than 25 countries and 20 organizations with the objective of promoting a better upstream response by 2030, rather than the responses of emergency.
Under the effect of climate change, more and more regions of the world are exposed to droughts, the number of which has increased by 30% since the year 2000, according to the UN. “Our resilience to climate change depends on that of our land. The alliance’s mission is to provide political momentum to make land resilience to drought and climate change a reality by 2030,” the two heads of state said in a statement.
Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Desertification, for his part considered that droughts “should not necessarily lead to humanitarian disasters”. “The solutions exist,” he said, calling for “the political will” to implement them. This new “Alliance” will benefit from initial funding of five million euros provided by Spain, for its start-up and in order to mobilize other support, in particular for a project by Kenyan President William Ruto to plant five billion trees in the next five years and ten billion over ten years.