“It is critical to communicate the benefits of multi-hazard early warning to society,” stressed

Wenjian Zhang, Assistant Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization. “And it is important to keep one single authoritative voice, otherwise society will get confused.”

Wrapping up the two day conference hosted by the World Meteorological Organization, Kirsi Madi, Director, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, recalled that participants stressed the importance of having reliable data to underpin early warning systems. 

Technology and innovation will be wasted without proper communication. It is important to have warnings that are trusted, people-centred and that lead to actions.  Information should be distilled in simple terms so that citizens can make decisions based on multi-hazard early warning systems. 

“I am confident that these findings will very concretely influence national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction, which is one of the seven targets of the Sendai Framework,” said Kirsi Madi, Director of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.  “I hope that we will be able to break the silos and ensure that we are developing strategies that make difference in people’s lives.” 

In his closing remarks, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas reminded that capacity development is one of the more important issues for his organization, especially in less developed countries.  “We have a challenge to mobilize resources for such purposes. There was a lack of impact-based forecasting in many of the WMO member countries.”

According to Daniel Kull, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the World Bank, upgrading multi-hazard early warning systems in developing countries result in  USD 36 billion per year in benefits from avoided losses. 

The conference discussions will feed into the 2019 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction taking place from 13-17 May in Geneva, as well as the WMO congress to be held in three weeks, and the UN climate summit to be held in New York in September.

Date:

14 May 2019

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Themes:

Early Warning

Regions:

Africa, Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania