Monday – 11 March 2013

Session I:

Opening Ceremony
Chair: Dr. Akin Adesina, Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nigeria
09:00 – 10:30

Welcome Address:
Rep. from Switzerland
Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General,
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary
U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

José Graziano da Silva, Director General
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
10:30 – 11:00

Coffee Break
Session II

Setting the Stage
Chair: World Meteorological Organization
11:00 – 12:00

Managing Drought Risk in a Changing Climate: The Role of National Drought Policy

Donald A. Wilhite, Professor of Applied Climate Science, University of Nebraska, USA
12:00 – 12:30

Discussion
12:30 – 14:00

Lunch Break
Session III

Drought Monitoring, Early Warning and Information Systems
Chair: Dasarath Jayasuriya, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

This session will discuss the current advances in drought monitoring, early warning and information systems and will emphasize the need for an integrated approach to address the needs for drought information to diverse user communities.  Examples of success stories will be given but also the current limitations discussed
14:00 – 14:30

Drought Monitoring, Early Warning and Information Systems
Roger Pulwarty, NIDIS/NOAA, USA
14:30 – 15:00

Discussants:
Gertjan Beekman, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA), Brazil
Elena Mateescu, National Meteorological Administration, Romania
Mark Svoboda, National Drought Mitigation Center, USA
Laban Ogallo, IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC), Kenya
15:00 – 15:30

General Discussion
15:30 – 16:00

Coffee break
Roundtable I

Implementing Drought Monitoring, Early Warning and Information Systems (DEWS)
Moderator: Jurgen Vogt, European Drought Observatory/JRC

Experts will focus on DEWS in the context of their experiences and how these systems can provide support for a national drought policy focused on risk reduction.
16:00 – 16:10

Introduction by Moderator
16:10 – 16:50

Discussants:
Orivaldo Brunini, IAC, Brazil  
B. Venkateswarlu, CRIDA, India
Juan Carlos Villagran de Leon, UN-SPIDER, Germany
SongLian Chun, CMA, China
16:50 – 17:30

General Discussion
Parallel Sessions I

I. Regional Drought Monitoring Centers: Progress and Future Plans
Moderator: Dr Ben Mohammed, Niger

Gregor Gregoric, DMCSEE, Slovenia
Seydou Traore, AGRHYMET, Niger
Parallel Sessions II

II. Drought Education at Different Levels
Moderator: Dr Siegfried Demuth, UNESCO

Kelly Smith, National Drought Mitigation Center, USA
Reza Ardakanian, UNW-DPC, Germa
Parallel Sessions III

III. Advocacy to foster the outcomes of HMNDP
Moderator: Johan Kuylenstierna, Stockholm Environmental Institute 

Siddharth Chatterjee, International Federation for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Ania Grobicki, GWP, Sweden