Inclusive Early Warning Systems in Zimbabwe

This case study belongs to a compendium of good practices and success stories in disaster risk reduction shared during the 2025 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2025). These stories reflect the real-world progress being made by governments, communities, and organizations around the world to reduce risk and build resilience.

Zimbabwe is addressing longstanding barriers in hazard communication by ensuring that alerts are delivered in formats suited to diverse needs and contexts. Since 2020 when the Broadcasting Services Act put in place compliance parameters for the use of language in the broadcasting field, programs on both radio and television are produced and broadcast-ed via all the 16 official languages including sign language. 

This means that weather updates include sign language interpretation (which is one of the recognized language in the country’s constitution), while pictorial formats and color codes make information more accessible to people with low literacy or visual learning preferences. Localized radio broadcasts disseminate alerts in all 16 of the country’s official languages, ensuring communities receive timely information in their mother tongue.

Source: Shared at Thematic Session 1-4 by Speaker Ms Elise Revenga, Federation of Organizations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe