At the inaugural CGIAR Science Week in Nairobi, Kenya, the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action convened a meeting on 10 April 2025 on drought early action for resilient drylands.
At the meeting, Rachael McDonnell, deputy director general of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR centre, introduced the Drought Action Catalyst, which was launched in 2024 at COP16 in Riyadh.
Dr McDonnell also called for greater collaboration among leading scientific institutions working on drought – including the CGIAR, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Jameel Observatory.
We can't stop the droughts. It's baked in for another 40 years. We need to build resilience.
We came together and developed the CGIAR's Drought Action Catalyst.
We launched it at Riyadh at the COP. The Drought Action Catalyst has become part of the Riyadh Action Agenda that's going out from COP16.
How do we bring, not only all the CG, but its partners, like the University of Nebraska, which is one of the main drought centres of the world, NOAA, NASA, including the Jameel Observatory?
How do we bring them together and learn from what they're doing?