By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
February 7, 2023
Barbados played host to the first regional launch of the United Nations’ Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4ALL), which aims to ensure that every person on Earth is covered by an early warning system by the year 2027.
The EW4ALL, is the brain child of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who unveiled the plan during the COP 27 Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last November. According to Guterres, the aim is to achieve the goal of every person on Earth being protected by early warning systems by 2027, with the priority to support the most vulnerable, while it calls for investment across disaster risk knowledge, observations and forecasting, preparedness and response, and communication of early warnings.
The launch outlines practical measures to ensure that EW4ALL is incorporated in disaster risk management strategies and to highlight the impact of various endeavours in the region, including the Climate Risk Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Caribbean Initiative and the Regional Early Warning System Consortium which is chaired by CDEMA.
However, this year’s launch in the region coincides with the World Meteorological Organisation, WMO Regional Conference themed “Increasing weather, water and climate resilience in North America, Central America and the Caribbean” currently underway in Kingston, Jamaica, until February 9.
WMO is also one of the leading partners in the initiative, which is being spearheaded by the UNDRR, along with Caribbean leaders Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Philip J. Pierre, CARICOM and the Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Elizabeth Riley. Representing the United Nations, included Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Mami Mizutori, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Professor Petteri Taalas, and the UN Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Didier Trebucq.
The partnership for such a regional early warning system saw the coming together of leaders, who are expected to emphasize the importance of strengthening and coordinating early warning initiatives in the region as well as the need for joint leadership in the Caribbean to achieve coverage for all, especially for the most vulnerable.
In bringing greetings on the launch, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina J.Mohammed, says the early warning system is not a privilege but a right that every citizen can enjoy, but something Secretary General Antonio Guterres envisions reaching the goal of universal early warning systems coverage 2027.
She says “Save lives, protect livelihoods and deliver huge economic and social benefits, with 24 hours’ notice of an impending hazardous event, can cut damage by 30 percent, yet vulnerable communities often do not know what hazardous weather is on its way”. She added that this is particularly true to the Caribbean which suffers from larger disasters relative to its size, due to the effects of climate change, and with it set to increase, it further exposes the region to worse scenario
She added that: “To provide early warning systems for all in the next five years, the United Nations system and government partners must work together to address gaps across the four key pillars of early warning systems. Understanding disaster risks, monitoring of forecasting, communication and preparedness and response capacity, will require a wider investment is said to come at a figure of US$3.1B, but will save lives and economies”.
Delivering remarks on its significance to the region, Secretary General of CARICOM, Dr Carla Barnett described it as a bold initiative which will support resilience building in the region, carries the endorsement of CARICOM.
And while acknowledging the call for an action plan by the United Nations which ensures that every person on the earth to be protected by early systems by 2027, she says ‘given the trajectory of the climate crisis’, Dr Barnett hailed Guterres for his leadership in spearheading this project. She notes while the region ‘bears the brunt of the impact of the global climate change crisis, it is needed for the implementation of this in the Caribbean’.
Apart from what she calls a few hours of severe weather, the Caribbean also has to contend ‘with the rising of sea levels and accelerated drought flood cycles’, and calls for ‘timely and accurate and user-friendly early warning requires a wider spectrum of support’.
She says the launch comes at a time when the region is currently taking stock of its mid term review of its Caribbean’s comprehensive disaster management framework.
This comes also from CARICOM’s intergovernmental panel on climate change and the World Meteorological Organisation, which has provided valuable regional assessment of progress and gaps, in addition, inclusive and streamlined approaches to implementing early warning products is required at all levels so that local community groups, youth and all other groups can contribute to valuable development of systems that guard their own safety.
Dr Barnett says what is needed is “a fresh look at capacity building, moving beyond providing weather stations and a few days of training to seek out opportunities for education and vocational training to support equipment, maintenance and statistical management, artificial intelligence and modelling to broaden communications strategies. But continue on a path where early warning is seen by all users as underpinned by principles of authority, credibility and salience”.
She adds that MET services have often battled stubborn disregard for early warnings and fake information which often undermines credible efforts and encourages public displeasure when a disaster occurs not as anticipated.
Also sharing the significance of the early warning system, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Philip J. Pierre says this multi hazard early warning system is welcomed, but the Caribbean must implement more ways to change its fortunes when it comes to becoming more resilient to natural disasters.
“Early warning systems and effective communications along with environmental risks is in many ways are key to impacting good social behaviour and actions among its people. Emergency Management involves prevention, preparedness, response and mitigation prevention and recovery. However, the best disaster response is ensuring it has the foresight to avoid it from the start”.
He cited that currently “regional comprehensive disaster management strategy is the Caribbean’s vehicle for the implementation of the SENDAI framework for Risk Reduction”.
But it was Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley who posed the question, how do we give ourselves the best chance of survival, to which she says requires working together across countries and institutions, communities, sectorial, at all levels.
She says in essence the early warning frameworks is a matter of knowing and a ensuring there is complete change in how nations and institutions function in mitigating the impacts of disasters. Mottley says how we plan speaks to the matter of how we see, hear and feel people, or whether we take them as humans for granted. She says the ability to plan, prepare and put in place early warning systems are just a small part of it all,
She recalled the freak storm of June 2021, that had over 46,000 lightning strikes, and despite providing all the warnings, if there isn’t partnerships or the reinforcing community education or the plans that cause people to know you are serious, the warnings will fall on deaf ears.
Mottley urged emergency management services to perfect the art of who they are looking for and what they need before, during and after a disaster, and bridge the gap between civil society and the defense force in order to do so, while she added that the region needed a recovery shift, with islands coordinating through CARICOM to work with the international community to ensure that they are two ships prepositioned north and the south to lend aid in the matter of such situations.
In short-term, she says there was a need for a verification and validation system from local telecom providers in times of disaster that warnings disseminated from disaster agencies separating it from the fake news, where a system is devised to reach people where they function and navigate, such as social media.
UN Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Didier Trebucq says when reviewing existing capacities for geological, technological, hydro-meteorological, looking at the gaps for disseminating warnings, universal coverage is the aim at the end of the day. He notes that part of the launch also looks at the financing aspect of the warning system through the partnerships.
For the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Professor Petteri Taalas, it is their plan to build one of the largest computing facilities and virtual centers that can forecast climate and weather models to tell the extremes these systems and changes can cause and list the risk ahead.
Gerard Howe, Chair of Climate Risk Early Warning Systems (CREWS) says they intend to help in five different ways, that map against its four pillars of strategic road map for enhancing multi-hazard warning systems, flood strategies at national level, work on inclusion and capacity building. He says CREWS intend to continue to bring finance for national and regional warning systems, and crucially look to expand and scale successful initiatives, while building sustainable financing at scale, all while working to improve collaboration, taking a value chain approach working closely with colleagues to achieve early warning systems as an independent one.
Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Head of UNDRR shared, “Launching Early Warnings for All in the Caribbean is a critical first step toward coalescing the national, regional, and global cooperation needed to ensure everyone on Earth, especially the most vulnerable populations, are protected by multi-hazard early warning systems.”