Droughts statistically exceed all other natural disast ers in spatio-temporal extent, number of people affected and financial loss. Triggered by crop failure, food insecurity is a major manifestation of agricultural drought and water scarcity. However, other socio-economic precursors, such as chronically low levels of disaster preparedness, hampered access to food security or a lack of social safety nets are equally important factors. Consequently, this study is focused on two complementary developments that are carried out within a project named SATIDA (Satellite Technologies for Improved Drought-Risk Assessment) - a new satellite-derived agricultural drought index and a mobile phone application. The Combined Drought Index (CDI) is enhanced by replacing field measurements of temperature and rainfall with modeled/assimilated data. The vegetation component is replaced by a smoothed NDVI dataset. A soil moisture component is introduced to close the gap between rainfall deficiencies and the first visible impacts of atmospheric anomalies on vegetation. The mobile phone application enables the validation of drought index outputs and gives aid organizations an opportunity to increase the speed of socio-economic vulnerabil ity assessments. Supported by Doctors without Borders (MSF) this approach aims at decreasing uncertainties in decision-making via a more holistic framework for risk assessment.