Enhancing Understanding and Expanding Inter-regional and Regional Cooperation on Sand and Dust Storms

As a meteorological phenomenon, sand and dust storms drive mainly from arid and semi-arid areas and spread across large geographic areas. Major sand and dust storm events can transport dust over great distances so that their impact occurs not only in the areas where they originate but also in communities far from the source areas, frequently across international boundaries.

Countries in the Asia and the Pacific region, and also in the Western part of Asia and Northern part of Africa are among the largest in terms of mineral dust emissions. Due to the transboundary nature of sand and dust storms and in order to enhance the inter-regional collaboration, the Arab Centre for Climate Change Policies of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) are collaborating with a view to improve the understanding of the risk of this hazard and identify potential action at the regional and cross-regional level to foster Member States collaboration on the matter.

ESCWA and ESCAP through their respective centers co-lead the working group on regional collaboration of the UN Coalition on Sand and Dust Storms. In this context, APDIM and ACCCP, with the collaboration of the other Coalition members including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), are organizing a webinar on “Enhancing Understanding and Expanding Inter-regional and Regional Cooperation on Sand and Dust Storms” on 7 July 2021.

Expected outcomes:

• Deepening understanding on the component of the risk of sand and dust storms: hazard, vulnerability, and resilience.
• Showcasing examples of transboundary cooperation from around the world.
• Enhancing collaboration among actors.
• Identifying possible areas for joint activities and studies across regions.

Registration available on this link.

Webinar: Enhancing Understanding and Expanding Inter-regional and Regional Cooperation on Sand and Dust Storms