National Drought Resilience Partnership 2016 End of Year Report

The five-year Western drought and recent drought conditions in Northeastern and Southeastern United States underscore the continued importance of building national capabilities for long-term drought resilience. Federal agencies have focused on drought response for decades. Under the framework of the National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP), a greater emphasis has been placed on improving federal agency collaboration to ensure more efficient use of program dollars and agency expertise. A broad cross-section of stakeholder groups has supported and guided this collaboration. These groups helped shape six broad policy goals, and an associated Federal Action Plan, with 27 specific deliverables. This partnership has yielded products and program priorities that better meet the needs of rural and urban communities; the energy, agricultural and transportation sectors; infrastructure and water managers; business and industry; and ecosystems. As a result, 13 federal agencies and offices are cooperating in new ways under a shared strategy to deliver concrete results.

This 2016 Year End Report builds on the NDRP’s August 2016 Progress Report. It is broken out into three sections: a summary of accomplishments on actions since August; updates on regional scale collaborations; and recommendations from stakeholders on priorities in the coming year. Taken together, these two reports summarize the NDRP’s results in 2016.

The NDRP, managed by USDA, will continue to track progress on its six goals and seek stakeholder input on future priorities. Great opportunities lie ahead for effective federal collaboration that will support more water secure communities and economies.