GEF Sets $140M Drought Resilience Push for 2026-2030 Funding

The Global Environment Facility is preparing a $140 million program designed to help countries move away from crisis-driven drought response and toward longer-term monitoring, planning and resilience.

Expected to launch during the GEF-9 investment cycle, which runs from 2026 through 2030, the Drylands and Drought Management Integrated Program will focus on the growing economic and environmental risks linked to water scarcity and land degradation.

The program responds to priorities raised by parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and is intended to support countries working to strengthen drought preparedness across agriculture, water systems, ecosystems, public health and local economies.

For businesses, the wider takeaway is that drought is increasingly being treated as more than an agricultural or humanitarian challenge. Water shortages and degraded land can disrupt supply chains, infrastructure, energy production, commodity markets and investment decisions, making drought resilience a more direct concern for corporate risk teams.

Drought Funding Shifts Toward Preparedness and Prevention

A central goal of the planned GEF program is to help governments and communities act before drought conditions reach crisis levels.

Potential investments include drought monitoring systems, vulnerability assessments, national preparedness plans and mitigation measures. Funding could also support efforts to manage cascading effects across sectors, particularly where water shortages can move quickly from an environmental issue to a food, energy or economic problem.

GEF Interim CEO and Chairperson Claude Gascon has linked the initiative to the wider connections between healthy land, food and water security, biodiversity, jobs and social stability. Rather than concentrating funding mainly on recovery, the proposed approach would direct more resources toward reducing exposure and improving preparedness.

The program is also expected to coordinate with initiatives including the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership and the Drought Resilience Investment Facility. That coordination could help governments and investors develop projects at a larger scale, rather than relying on isolated interventions with limited regional impact.

Rangelands are another part of the funding picture. GEF is supporting the Rangelands Flagship Initiative, led by Mongolia and the UNCCD, which aims to increase investment in the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of rangelands.

GEF is contributing through the UNCCD COP17 Legacy Project, a $3.3 million investment implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The project is expected to leverage another $8 million in co-financing from Mongolia and IUCN.

The initiative also builds on activity from the GEF-8 cycle. Between 2022 and 2026, GEF approved 50 projects related to sustainable rangeland management, restoration and pastoral livelihoods, representing more than $300 million in total investment.

For companies connected to agriculture, food production, natural resources or rural infrastructure, these programs point to a growing emphasis on land and water resilience as part of long-term economic planning.

GEF-9 Brings Drought Risk Into a Wider Investment Strategy

The broader GEF-9 cycle is expected to begin with approximately $3.9 billion available for environmental programs. Four integrated programs aligned with UNCCD priorities — covering food systems, critical forest biomes, blue and green islands, and drylands and drought management — are expected to account for more than $800 million in GEF grant funding.

Drought resilience is also set to become more visible in the way funding is allocated and measured.

GEF plans to introduce a dedicated objective supporting national drought plans, add a drought vulnerability index to its country resource-allocation formula and establish indicators for measuring improvements in resilience.

Those changes could make drought exposure a more formal factor in decisions about where environmental finance is directed.

Private investment is another part of the strategy. Ten percent of total GEF-9 funding is expected to be allocated to a blended-finance window, while GEF aims to use roughly one-quarter of its resources to help mobilize private capital.

For financial institutions, infrastructure developers and companies with exposure to water-intensive supply chains, that could create additional routes into projects involving water management, land restoration, climate adaptation and resilient food systems.

The level of private-sector participation will depend on the final structure of individual programs and financing mechanisms. Still, the direction of travel is clear: drought risk is moving further into mainstream investment and resilience planning, with governments and financial institutions putting more weight on prevention before water stress becomes an economic emergency.