Innovation in public and private engagement (PPE) – multi-hazards early warning system and disaster risk reduction

Background 

This paper describes good practices in public and private engagement for disaster risk reduction, focusing on early warning systems in the Pacific and the Caribbean regions, which have been developed through the engagement of both public and private sectors. 

Natural hazards, both climatic/hydro-meteorological and geological/geomorphic, continue to claim thousands upon thousands of lives and wreak irreparable damage to homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure. If not managed well and mitigated to the maximum extent possible, they leave impoverished people and deteriorated economies in their destructive wake. The complexity of the problem requires an all-inclusive solution. Thus, in 2015, a global effort by numerous organizations and experts culminated in a set of frameworks driving economic development: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the Paris Agreement on Climate Change; and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. These frameworks call for multi-stakeholder (intra- and cross-sectoral engagements of stakeholders at all scales) and a holistic (end-to-end, multi-hazard) approach to disaster risk management. 

The year 2015 is indeed a watershed moment for this new era of development, called risk-informed sustainable development. It was recognized that we are all in this together and that we all have a shared obligation to meet the 2030 targets. The 2020 pandemic is an aching reminder of the urgent and strong need to work together for the benefit of all of us.