Organizers: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) Register here About the event As follow up to the first Regional Knowledge Forum on Drought held in 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and ICIMOD, under the framework of SERVIR, are organizing the 2nd “Regional Knowledge Forum on Drought and Climate Services for Food Security and Agricultural Decision Making in South and Southeast Asia.” This forum will review and assess existing national practices and policies related to drought monitoring and forecasting, crop monitoring and agriculture advisory services, and cross learning relevant to countries in the Lower Mekong and the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) regions. Towards the end of the forum, regional level engagement mechanisms based on regional needs will be set up that will include the proposed Knowledge Network on Droughts in Asia and Technical Working Groups for the Mekong and the HKH regions. Themes Deliberations at the regional forum will be divided into multiple sessions focusing on the following thematic topics: Drought monitoring and forecasting Earth observation for climate risk finance decision making Agriculture, land use, and crop type mapping Earth observation data-supported crop simulation modelling and yield forecasting Water resource and agricultural advisory systems Meeting format The forum will be organized as an online event. Background South and Southeast Asian countries are very prone to natural resource degradation due to intensive human activities and environmental changes. Moreover, producing additional food on limited land and providing access to food at the household level to ensure food security will likely continue to be major challenges in the future. There is considerable research being undertaken on agro-climatic monitoring and modelling. Lessons from such work can inform sustainable crop management decisions and provide farmers and decision-makers with alternative farming options. Similarly, a large amount of information on climate variability is available, although the use of such data by decision-makers remains low. User-oriented, easily accessible, timely, and actionable scientific information in the form of advisory services can assist adaptation to environmental change. Such information can also be used to make informed decisions to limit the economic damage and social disruption caused by environmental disasters. The SERVIR programme is a joint initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It is a global network of leading regional knowledge centres as well as consortium partners, dedicated to environmental management through the integration of Earth observations and geospatial technologies. The SERVIR-Mekong programme, hosted by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), has operationalised the Mekong Drought and Crop Watch (MDCW) system for the Lower Mekong region in collaboration with regional and national agencies. The MDCW system assists governments and the agricultural sector with drought monitoring and forecasting information for implementing short and long-term mitigation measures during and before droughts. We are collaborating with hydro-meteorological and agricultural institutions in the HKH region through our SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative and have established the Regional Drought Monitoring and Outlook System for South Asia. The aim is to improve the capacity of national agro-meteorology and agricultural agencies to develop data products related to crop monitoring and enhance the knowledge of national scientists on the interpretation of agro-climatic data in their country contexts. View this announcement on the SERVIR-Mekong website.