Next Generation Drought Index Project (Webinar Series), June 15-16

On June 15-16, the World Bank’s Crisis & Disaster Risk Finance (CDRF) team hosted the Next Generation of Drought Index Project (NGDI) webinar, in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the International Research Institute for Climate & Society (IRI). The webinars attracted more than 150 participants daily from client countries, WB global and regional teams, as well as technical and humanitarian partners. A series of follow-up events will be taking place in the coming months, to fine-tune the potential of the platform presented to meet clients' specific needs.

Leveraging the latest satellite imagery data for the benefit of the poor and most vulnerable across Africa, NGDI is developing a practical framework and state-of-the-art indicators of drought to better monitor, anticipate and trigger financial response to severe food insecurity events. 

In the past three years, the number of people who suffer from hunger has slowly increased, with more than 820 million people in the world still hungry today. Coupled with climate change, conflict, migration, epidemics, drought risk is likely to create new development and humanitarian emergencies, and further disrupt economies and the lives of billions.

Against this backdrop, disaster risk financing is becoming more fundamental for development than ever before. Countries continue to ask for solutions tailored to their particular needs, and this requires deep regional knowledge, technical expertise, and innovation. The CDRF team has been partnering with local, regional, and humanitarian partners including ESA, IRI and the World Food Programme, to provide clients in Senegal and Mozambique access to the latest technology and sound and reliable decision-making information. This work is supporting operational engagements in these pilot countries and will be further deployed to other environments, crop types, and applications in the region in the near future. 

Click here to access the Overview. 

Click here to access the NGDI project summary.