In response to the continent’s vulnerability to the threats and risks of disaster, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), in partnership with its Network of Centres of Excellence (NoE), is building the capacities of African countries to enable them tackle the issue through the early warning system initiative.
In this regard, a five-day training of trainers’ workshop was held in Accra for experts from across the continent. The participants, drawn from relevant institutions, were equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to enable them train and develop other stakeholders in various topics related to approaches to early warning and anticipatory actions for predictable extreme events, all in a bid to build and strengthen disaster-preparedness and resilience.
Hosted by the West African Science Service Centre of Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), the training brought together professionals from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar and Italy who shared knowledge on ‘early warning systems and actions’.
The Executive Director of WASCAL, Moumini Savadogo, admonished the participants to be agents of change after their training. He was also emphatic about the need for all and sundry to get involved in achieving the UN indicators set by the Early Warning for All initiative by 2027
Programme Coordinator at the CIMA Foundation, Marco Massabo – one of the key partners of the Network of Excellence, was confident that through the training participants will understand the concepts and explore the approaches of early warning systems and early and anticipatory actions for Accra; disaster risk financing; harnessing climate risk data; data harmonisation and management; and participatory planning as tools to improve anticipatory action.
Participants at the training expressed delight with the training’s success and pledged to pass on the knowledge acquired. They agreed that the issue of disaster risk has become increasingly critical, and as such a priority matter in the face of increasing frequency and impacts of hazards experienced by both the continent and global community.
The Director of Ghana Hydrological Authority (GHA), John Kissi, meanwhile said that in order to have effective training on early warning systems there is a need for closer collaboration among relevant institutions.
“GHA provides hydrological data, which includes stream flow, velocity and also the weather forecast. Therefore, it is necessary they get involved,” he indicated.
He further added that since GHA has started a new early warning system in the Greater Accra Region under Greater Accra Resilient, Integrated and Development project (GARID), the workshop will enhance its capacity by helping to expand the GARID project to the Northern Region.
The early warning for all and NoE initiative
The importance of availability and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information is enshrined in the seven global targets of the 2015 Sendai Framework for Action, as well as the ‘early warning for all’ launched in 2022 – which aims to have every person on the planet protected from fire, water, flood and other natural disasters.
The NoE initiative continues working across the continent to create a network for enhanced engagement and collaboration between various stakeholders: including non-governmental organisations, academia, practitioners and scientists working in the field of disaster risk reduction, early warning, anticipatory action and disaster-preparedness – which can positively contribute to efforts at bringing together institutions and individuals from across the continent.
It aims to draw upon their expertise to develop and strengthen institutional capacity across national, regional and continental levels, to collect, exchange and analyse data which inform multi-hazard and impact-based early warning systems, and provide guidance to disaster risk-affiliated authorities to implement anticipatory actions.
Partners
The training is under the Network of Centres of Excellence (NoE) for Early Warning and Anticipatory Action, comprising the UNDRR in collaboration with the CIMA Research Foundation; Stellenbosch University; Disaster Risk Management, Sustainability and Urban Resilience (DIMSUR); PERI PERI U; the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD); and WASCAL with support from the government of Italy.
