June 17, 2013, Kyiv — Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1995, the World Day to Combat Desertification in this year focuses on drought and water scarcity and is held under the slogan "Don't let our future dry up!" It aims at raising awareness of the risks of drought and water scarcity, and not only on drylands.

According to UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifths of the world's population, live in areas of physical water scarcity, while 500 million more are approaching this situation. On the other hand, another 1.6 billion people, or almost a quarter of the world's population, face economic water shortage (where countries lack the necessary infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers).

The slogan, "Don't let our future dry up!" is intended to deliver a dual message: first, that all people are responsible for water and land conservation and sustainable use, and second, that there are solutions to these challenges. Indeed, as the UNDESA points out, water scarcity is not only a natural but also a human-made phenomenon – there is enough freshwater on the planet for seven billion people but it is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed.

On March 13, 2013, at the High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) have launched a joint Integrated Drought Management Program (IDMP). The program is expected to meet an urgent need to develop better drought monitoring and risk management systems, and for countries to have frameworks in place to manage drought risks through an integrated approach.