A High-Level Forum on Defying Drought (D2) in West Africa, 29–30 September 2025, brought together senior policymakers, experts and partners in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to advance coordinated solutions to strengthen drought resilience across the Sahel.
Convened by the World Bank Group in partnership with the Government of Burkina Faso and the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE), the two-day event focused on scaling up drought-resilience measures across vulnerable regions.
Climate pressures are intensifying across West Africa. Population growth and declining per capita water resources are straining supply–demand balances, while drought risk is rising alongside floods and heatwaves. Over the past 50 years, extreme drought conditions have increased by more than 230 per cent.
A key outcome was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Africa Water Center — a regional hub for innovation, knowledge exchange and capacity building to strengthen water planning, early warning and drought management across West Africa.
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