Discovering the Early Warnings for All Initiative in the Americas
A series of webinars will take place throughout the Americas this year to sensitize all to the need to pull together to achieve the Early Warnings for All goal.
The Early Warnings for All is gaining momentum in the 30 countries designated for priority implementation. Six of the countries are in the Americas and the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana and Haiti. However, the scope of the initiative still needs to be fully communicated in all countries and institutions, both regionally and nationally. Towards this objective, a series of webinars will take place throughout the year to sensitize all to the need to pull together to achieve the Early Warnings for All goal. The first on 29 May, in Spanish, gathered 400 participants from across the Americas.
The webinar series has five main goals:
- Strengthen collaboration between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS), National Disaster Risk Management Offices (NDMOs), and the humanitarian sector
- Share collaborative national level work experiences that can be replicated in other countries
- Improve the communication and dissemination of warnings and/or alerts
- Promote the implementation of impact-based forecasting
- Develop capacities for cataloging high-impact events.
The first webinar focused on presenting the structure of the Early Warnings for All initiative: its four pillars and its scope. Then it highlighted the partnerships and connections that would be needed between national institutions, particularly NMHSs and NDMOs. A second webinar in July will focus on sharing experiences among institutions within the framework of Early Warning Systems. Subsequent webinars will promote continued interaction between national and regional institutions, so that all actors align and commit to making early warning access a reality by 2027 across the Americas and the Caribbean.
The National Meteorological Service of Argentina, the WMO Regional Training Centres in Argentina and Peru, the Climate Centre of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will lead this effort in the Americas. They will work in coordination with the Early Warning for All lead implementation agencies: WMO, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and IFRC.
