Drought Resilience and Early Warning (DREW) Pacific Project

Project
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Ongoing
Total Funding:
US$ 5,650,000
WMO Funding:
US$ 4,800,000
WMO Long-Term Goal(s):
  • Disaster Risk Reduction
  • Climate Resilience and Adaptation
  • Capacity Development
  • Governance
Focus Area(s):
  • Observations
  • Data Management
  • Forecasting
  • Service Delivery
  • Early Warnings

Project background

The four-year CREWS Drought Resilience and Early Warning (DREW) Pacific Project (2026–2029) is funded by the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Initiative with an allocation of US$ 5.6 million. The project supports Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS), including the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tokelau, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, which face increasing exposure to climate variability and prolonged drought conditions.

 Drought presents significant socio-economic and environmental challenges in the region, affecting water security, agriculture, food systems, livelihoods, and public health while also highlighting gaps in the monitoring, forecasting, and early warning systems.

The DREW Pacific Project aims to strengthen drought resilience by improving community-focused, integrated Early Warning Systems and Early Actions (EWSA) for drought. It will enhance national and regional technical capacities for drought monitoring and forecasting, strengthen institutional coordination, and promote inclusive, people-centred systems that ensure timely, actionable information reaches vulnerable communities.
 

Objective(s)

Improving community-focused, integrated EWS and Actions for drought in Pacific Island Countries to enhance decision-making and reduce drought impacts.

Outputs

Output 1.1 - A country and/or region has developed or strengthened legislative and/or institutional frameworks to support and sustain multi-hazard early warning systems
Output 1.2 - Multi-hazard needs, gaps, and priority assessments, analyses, and related investment plans for early warning systems in a country or region are driven by CREWS financing
Output 1.3. - Partnerships and cooperation frameworks developed for financing and scaling up support to multi-hazard early warning systems
Output 2.1 - Risk information and tools generated by countries to enable the delivery of impact-based early warnings
Output 2.2 - Monitoring, analysis, and forecasting of hazards that threaten the country/region are improved and sustained by the countries
Output 2.3 - Warnings are communicated by the countries based on common alerting protocols (CAP) under agreed standard operational procedures (SOPs)
Output 2.4 - Warnings are received, understood, and acted upon based on co-produced preparedness and response plans by the countries
Output 3.1 - People of different backgrounds, gender, youth, older persons, people with disabilities, poor, marginalized, displaced, and non-native, as well as related institutions, have co-produced climate and weather information products tailored to their needs
Output 3.2 - Private sector is engaged to foster innovation and sustainability in delivery of early warning services
 

Expected outcomes

Outcome 1 - National and local multi-hazard early warning systems prioritised and funded.
Outcome 2 - Improved early warning service delivery and accessibility by national and regional institutions.
Outcome 3 - Early Warning programmes are driven by people-centered and gender responsive principles and promote private sector engagement.

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