Drought Contingency Plans and Planning in the Greater Horn of Africa

This paper is a UNISDR contribution towards effective Drought Contingency Planning (DCP) for
stakeholders and partners implementing drought risk reduction programmes in the Greater Horn of
Africa (GHA). It attempts to convert findings, concepts and guidelines into a guidance document from
critical gaps to bridge general drought preparedness, contingency planning and early response.
Although ‘‘Drought Contingency Plan’’ and ‘‘Drought Contingency Planning’’ are used interchangeably,
they are not identical. With respect to this review a few conceptual and operational definitions of terms
and concepts related to drought are highlighted. Whereas the contingency planning process, guidelines
and evaluation have been studied at the national government and inter-agency levels, there has been
little research and examination on the critical gaps in contingency plans and planning for implementing
partners for effective drought preparedness and response at community levels.