Global early warning systems needed: creating partnerships to cope with natural disasters.

• Author: Briceno, Salvano

Every year in the past two decades, more than 200 million people, on average, have been affected by natural hazards. Disasters have caused a massive loss of life and negative long-term social, economic and environmental consequences. Vulnerable societies have been deeply affected, particularly in developing countries with less coping capacity.

The threat of disaster to these countries triggered by natural hazards poses a serious obstacle to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. (1) Historical experience, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, has demonstrated that, although the occurrence of natural hazards cannot be prevented, their impact could be decreased when resilience of communities is strengthened.

Following the ten-year review of the progress made in the area of disaster reduction, the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) (2), held in Kobe, Japan in January 2005, adopted an important policy document, the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. (3) The Framework highlighted early warning as one of the major elements of disaster-risk reduction, which could save lives and help protect livelihoods and national development gains. Early warning systems have been recognized as an effective tool to reduce vulnerabilities and improve preparedness and response to natural hazards.

The importance of early warning has been underlined in various UN General Assembly resolutions as a critical element of disaster reduction. When the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) was established in 2000 as the successor to the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990-1999), the promotion of people-centred early warning systems was clearly underlined and included in its mandate. The significance of early warning for disaster reduction has been repeatedly emphasized in major international agendas, including the Yokohama Strategy (4), Agenda 21 (5), the Barbados Plan of Action for Small Island Developing States (6), the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (7), the Mauritius Strategy (8) and the G8 Summit in Gleneagles (9), as well as major multilateral environmental agreements, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention to Combat Desertification.

To promote the goals of the 1994 Yokohama Strategy, specific activities on early warning were undertaken during the International Decade. In 1998, the International Conference on Early Warning Systems for Natural Disaster Reduction was convened in Potsdam, Germany, with the focus on...