A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

5Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiativesISDR Task Force Working Groupon Early WarningThe aim of Working Group 2 on early warning createdby the ISDR IATF is to better coordinate global practicesin early warning and to make sure it is effectivelyutilized as an instrument in disaster reduction activities.The UNEP Division of Early Warning and Assessmentleads this Working Group whose membershipincludes CDERA, the Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations (FAO), the GermanNational Committee for Disaster Reduction, and theADRC, GFMC, the Intergovernmental Authority onDevelopment (IGAD), the SADC Drought MonitoringCentres, the South Pacific Applied GeoscienceCommission (SOPAC), the United Nations Programmefor Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT),the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification(UNCCD), UNDP, UNESCO and WMO. Thegroup builds on previous activities undertaken in thefield and coordinates with those of the different IATFworking groups in the areas of data and informationmanagement, to support assessments of risk and vulnerabilityto natural hazards and early warning and viceversa. The group seeks to involve as many parties aspossible from national, regional and internationalorganizations into its discussions, on an ad hoc basis, toensure its intersectoral and multidisciplinary dimension.Key words characterizing the six objectives of theGroup are coordination, collaboration, harmonization,dissemination of information and networking to createand share knowledge. The work of the group will focuson inventorying capacities for early warning and vulnerabilityassessments, as well as related scientific andtechnical issues, learning lessons and identifying shortcomings,developing effectiveness indicators and communicatingearly warning information. The group willAt the regional level, the growing economicimportance of climatic variability has promptedWMO and other technical institutions toreach beyond scientific research and to extendavailable information to establish early warningsystems and to strengthen local risk reductionpractices. An excellent example in this area isthe series of Regional Climate OutlookForums (RCOFs) organized by USAID, theUnited States National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration (US/NOAA) and WMO. Theseseasonal, multidisciplinary technical meetingshave brought together meteorologists, climateforecasters and disaster managers from neighbouringcountries to review advance climateforecast indicators jointly and then to considerthe potential implications in their respectivecountries. The weather forecast data are likewisediscussed with respect to other social andeconomic dimensions of governmental interest,in an effort to develop routine opportunities bywhich climatic and meteorological considerationsare integrated into disaster management,agricultural, public health, energy, commercialand similar interests shared by all of the participatingcountries.A review to assess the accomplishments andshortcomings of RCOFs and recast theirfuture was carried out in 2000. Conclusions areconsistent with the needs identified at the Bonnmeeting, i.e. improved interlinkages among allstakeholders involved in the early warningprocess. As stated in “Coping with the Climate:A Way Forward”, there is a need to clarifyand reinforce the current three-tiered supportstructure. There is also a need to focusand build capacity in key areas, including thedevelopment of improved, user-tailored forecastproducts in partnership with appropriateintermediaries, broader outreach through themedia, verification of forecast products andevaluation of forecast costs and benefits.Development and use of forecasts will beenhanced by “more systematic organization ofthe roles and responsibilities of forum partnersincluding users, researchers, and operationalorganizations” and by the “partnerships …needed at all levels of the process”. Governments,policy makers, development experts,scientists and other interested parties are invitedto engage in a process of dialogue and programmedevelopment needed for the managementof climatic impacts.Technical identification andmonitoring of hazardsScientific knowledge and monitoring capabilitiesare needed to identify and forecast short tolong-term hazards. The first segment of theearly warning chain is the forecast and predictionof hazards, which along with vulnerabilityand risk information, will allow the formulationof warning messages for intermediaries.Until now, early warning has taken place alongthe lines of singular events and hazards or272