All five Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - have landscapes marked by vast desert and semi-desert plains, piedmont plains and oases of irrigated soils, which are affected by desertification and drought.

The establishment of a Drought Management Centre will help improve drought preparedness, monitoring and management, in particular by bringing together stakeholders to work out national as well as sub-regional drought strategies.

It is also expected that the Centre will contribute to environmental security by providing a better network at the national level and among Central Asian countries, while supplying necessary information to decision-makers.

The OSCE, in co-operation with the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), is organizing a technical workshop in Tashkent on 20 and 21 November to identify the needs, expectations and objectives of a possible establishment of a Drought Management Centre in Central Asia.

The technical workshop will be the first of two meetings to formulate the terms of reference for a proposed regional Centre. A second meeting will provide a political platform to discuss further steps to be taken.

Following discussions at the 15th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum held in Vienna and Prague earlier this year, the OSCE and the UNCCD decided to enhance their co-operation in addressing the important regional challenge drought poses in Central Asia.

The theme of this year’s Forum, chosen by the Spanish Chairmanship of the Organization, was land degradation, soil contamination and water management.