Flooding in the Greater Horn of Africa: building effective early warning systems

This report details the discussions and outcomes of the expert roundtable event on Flooding in the Greater Horn of Africa held in September 2016. The event discussed current best practices for Early Warning Systems (EWS), looking in particular at the 2006 ISDR checklist for developing ‘people-centred’ early warning systems and the four-point approach which includes risk knowledge, warning service, dissemination, and response capabilities.

The highlights and recommendations from the outcome paper include the following:

• EWS should be ‘impact-based’ and ‘people-focused’, empowering user communities to take appropriate action
• The complex chain of institutions, stakeholders and actors needs to be simplified to increase the systems’ efficacy
• To be effective, EWS must be completely understood by its users and also have their confidence and trust

The report also provides information on current projects by intergovernmental organizations and a comprehensive list of ways to improve EWS.