Improved Drought Early Warning and Forecasting to strengthen preparedness and adaptation to droughts in Africa

The main aim of DEWFORA is to reduce vulnerability and strengthen preparedness to droughts in Africa by advancing drought forecasting, early warning and mitigation practices. To this aim, a framework for monitoring, predicting, timely warning and responding to droughts at the seasonal time scale will be developed, applicable within the institutional context of African countries. At longer time scales, the project will also contribute to improve the identification of vulnerable regions taking into account the increased hazard due to climate change, and develop feasible adaptation measures. Our role in DEWFORA is to develop a statistical seasonal drought forecasting model for the Eastern Nile and the Limpopo basin. Our research focusses on forecasting drought indexes to support drought early warning.