Regional Drought Resilience Planning

Drought does not pay attention to lines on a map and is best planned for on a regional scale based on landscape, community, economy and climate, rather than borders.

The Australian Government is working with state and territory governments to support regions to develop regional drought resilience plans to prepare for and manage future drought risks.

The plans will:

• be community-led and owned through partnerships of local governments, regional organisations, communities and industry
• identify actions to prepare for future droughts, with a sharp focus on agricultural sector and allied industries
• bring people together to share their local knowledge and perspectives
• recognise that no two regions are the same
• be evidence-based
• use best practice approaches to resilience, adaptation and transformation
• build on existing planning
• draw out regional needs and priorities to inform future investments.

The program will provide regions with:

• independent expert feedback on plans
• access to evidence and data to support planning
• the opportunity to learn from each other – as all plans will be published online
• small grants to take forward actions identified in their plans.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will partner with the program to support development of regional drought resilience plans by providing independent, expert feedback on every plan.

CSIRO will use the science of resilience, adaptation, and transformation at the local level, to ensure regions are well-placed to tackle the risk of future droughts. This will also enable best-practice and learnings to be applied across Australia.

The plans will be approved by the Commonwealth Minister for Agriculture.

Regions will also partner with networks of researchers, primary producers and community groups through their local Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub to improve drought resilience.

Benefits

Regional communities will benefit by:

• being able to identify and plan for the impacts of drought 
• being in a stronger position to adapt to changes and take advantage of opportunities as they arise
• building their economic, environmental and social resilience to future droughts
• learning from each other and share what’s working and what’s not
• forming stronger connections and relationships within and between regions
• having access to best practice data and information to make better decisions
• improving natural resource management across the region.

The program will also support small grants for regions to take forward priority actions identified in regional plans. The targeting of this support will be developed through consultation with state and territory governments and others.

Delivery

We are running the program right across Australia – delivered through each state and territory. The program will roll out until June 2024.

The foundational year of the program saw 23 regions across Australia announced as the first to develop regional drought resilience plans. The foundational year regions in each state and territory are listed and a map is provided below:

You can find out more about what's happening in each state or territory, as information becomes available, by selecting below:

See more about each state

Funding information

Find the details of the payment information for the Regional Drought Resilience Planning program as required under section 27A of the Future Drought Fund Act 2019 below.

Factsheet