International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

It is a great honour and pleasure for me to address the Future of Drylands conference, within the context of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification and commemorating 50 years of drylands research. I would like to express my appreciation to the President of Tunisia, His Excellency, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and the Tunisian Government for hosting this important conference in collaboration with UNESCO.

This conference is an opportunity to share experiences and knowledge and to identify ways to cooperate on drylands research, conservation, policy and sustainable drylands development. Above all, it is a valuable contribution to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, this contribution will be significant only if governments can address, in a substantive manner, the need to reduce risk and vulnerability to drought and its terrible consequence, famine.