Side Event 7

Strengthening local-level early warning systems (EWS) to build resilience to climate extremes and disasters

Side event objectives:

In 2017, there were 318 natural hazards affecting 122 countries causing 9,503 deaths, displacing 96 million people and impacting economic damages about USD 314 billion (EM-DAT, 2018). Almost 90% of deaths in 2017 were due to hydro-meteorological disasters. In most of the countries, there are opportunities for improvements of early warning systems, especially at the interactions at the local level. There is a lack of timely communication and dissemination of early warning messages to at risk communities, due in part to insufficient policy and governance support, and weak institutional linkages. In addition, response capacity of communities is weak in many countries as foundational knowledge on risk, and information on the expected impact of climate change on the intensity of hazards, is often not appropriately communicated.

This session discusses challenges, gaps, and innovative and practical approaches (policy, governance and technical) of strengthening local level early warning systems of multi-hazards. It will also highlight success stories and lesson learned from Asian countries. The session will primarily target government officials, international organizations, disaster risk managers and practitioners engaged in working on resilience building to extremes towards programming and planning at the local level. Secondary audiences will include practitioners and researchers who are engaged in mainstreaming climate and disaster risk management into national and local government planning in countries.

Expected outcomes:

• Enhanced knowledge on successful implementation of Priority 4 of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response) by strengthening early warning systems; and
• A set of recommendations with innovative and practical approaches to improve local early warning systems to support MHEWSs in the countries. 

Key messages:

• Institutional linkage (both horizontal and vertical level) is of vital importance for effective communication and dissemination of multi-Hazard early warnings;
• Awareness raising, on regular basis, among local authorities and communities through table-top simulations, drill and simulation exercises are key to enhance response capacity;
• Understanding risk (risk assessment) of multi-hazards at local level, would greatly help to improve risk-based early warnings;
• Local governance also plays a key role in strengthening MHEWSs through financing, contingency planning, emergency response planning, local ownership etc, etc;
• Success stories and lessons learned of MHEWSs in other areas / other countries would support to improve existing systems; and
• Donors, development partners and governments can contribute to improvements in on preparedness by strengthening early warning systems.