Early Warnings for All intiative (EW4All): September 2023 updates

EW4ALL National Workshops in Tajikistan and Ethiopia

The Early Warnings for All Initiative (EW4All) is rapidly gaining ground in countries. Tajikistan held a two-day national consultation on 29-30 August, co-chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and the UN Resident Coordinator and bringing together key stakeholders from state and international organizations, media, and civil society. The Government has reinstated its commitment to scaling up EWS and official national pillar focal points have been nominated to steer the initiative’s implementation. On 31 August – 1 September Ethiopia held a joint launch of EW4All and the Water at the Heart of Climate Action project, attended by key national stakeholders. Building on gap analysis and a national roadmap already developed, the EW4All launch outlined concrete next steps to scale up existing action under all four pillars.

Mark your calendar

National Workshop in Laos

21 September, Vientiane

National Workshop in Nepal

21– 22 September, Kathmandu

National Workshop in Cambodia

04 October, Phnom Penh

Gap Analysis Workshop in Guatemala

04 October, Guatemala City

National Workshop in Barbados

01 – 02 November, Bridgetown

National Workshop in Haiti

29 – 30 November, Port-au-Prince

EW4ALL country implementation

Africa

• Ethiopia's National launch of EW4All and Inception Workshop of the Water at the Heart of Climate Action Project was held in Addis Ababa, on 30 August – 01 September 2023: The workshop comprised a successful launch of the initiative as well as the W@H Project and culminated in the finalization of the national MHEWS roadmap. Next steps include the creation of an implementation plan based on the roadmap; formation of the national implementation team at strategic and technical levels and formation of an advisory committee to oversee the national implementation plan including their Terms of References.
• Desktop review planned for Ethiopia of all priority EWS actions identified at institutional, operational, regional, national and local levels as well as plans to carry out/update climate risk assessments in priority regions and sectors of the economy.
• Tentative date for Pillar 1 workshop in Ethiopia is scheduled for last week in November. As part of the initiative, Microsoft will support the development of exposure mapping and modelling pertaining to flooding.

National EW4All Workshop in Madagascar is currently being held on 14–15 September, in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

• Africa Climate Summit and Africa EW4All Action plan: The EW4ll Africa Action Plan has been developed and was launched at Africa Climate Summit / Africa Climate Week, 4-8, September 2023, Nairobi, Kenya. The Plan proposes to have a coordinated approach to implementing actions geared towards early warning on the continent.
• Conferment of the title of WMO Regional Champion for EW4ALL on H.E. DR William Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya.
• The 2022 State of Climate in Africa report was successfully released on 4th September together with the State of Climate in Kenya report by the SG (Secretary General) (WMO), AUC (African Union Commission) Commissioner and ES (UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa)).

Asia & Pacific

• Bangladesh National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory action will be held on 26-27 September, including a dedicated session on EW4All in view of planning for national workshop in October (date is tbc).
• National workshops taking place in Laos, Nepal and Cambodia (see calendar of events above).
• Maldives Common Agenda for EWS in preparation.

Europe & Central Asia

• Tajikistan National Workshop, 29 – 30 August, Dushanbe, Tajikistan: The workshop witnessed significant political involvement, including the attendance of the Deputy Prime Minister throughout parts of both workshop days. Within the workshop's framework, the gap analysis was formally concluded using the Minimum Core Capability Tool and other material from the EW4All interpillar checklist.
• National focal points have been designated to oversee effective implementation, namely the Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence for Pillars 1 and 4, Committee of Environmental Protection for Pillar 2 and CTV and Radio and Communications Service for Pillar 3.
• Tentative date for Pillar 1 workshop in Tajikistan is scheduled for first quarter of 2024.
• Issue-based Coalition on Environment and Climate Change Workshop 12-14 September 2023 Istanbul, Türkiye: The workshop brought together the UN Regional and National Resident Coordinators in the region and the EW4All session explored the possibility to leverage the Issue Based Coalition on Environment and Climate Change forums to support regional coordination of UN agencies to EW4All national implementation.

Latin America & the Caribbean

• A scoping mission was held in Guatemala on 16 to 18 August 2023, where WMO, UNDRR and IFRC/National Society introduced the EW4All initiative to the national authorities and a first onsite assessment of current capabilities, gaps, and underlying conditions for its implementation at national level was done. The scoping mission secured engagement of the UNCT and key stakeholders. 
• A technical Gap analysis workshop will be held in Guatemala on 9 October 2023, with the actors already identified. Then, the process will continue with the establishment of the roadmap and the official launch of the initiative, which is expected to take place in the first weeks or months of 2024.
• Through the contribution of EW4All, the Community of Christ Church West in Barbados was recognised as and awarded Tsunami-Ready by UNESCO. The Tsunami Ready Programme incorporates risk knowledge assessment, preparedness actions and response planning with recognition being granted upon the satisfactory completion of a verification process.

Global interpillar technical coordination & activities

• The University College London (UCL) conference on “Creating Effective Warnings For All”, hosted in London on 11-13 September convened a number of sessions that assembled experts and stakeholder to discuss ways of improving warning systems to save lives, and to support the EW4All initiative. These included:
• A session hosted by UNDRR entitled ‘Voices from the Field: Leveraging Past Disasters for Enhanced Early Warning Systems.’ This session sought to examine the barriers to effective learning from past disasters and highlighted strategies to overcome them. The panel – composed of experts from REAP, GSMA, ITU, IFRC Climate Centre, Resurgence and UNRRR-WMO Centre of Excellence – highlighted some of the challenges of implementing effective lessons learned into national EWS. Notably, the evolving disaster scenarios fueled by climate change, securing inclusive EWS and ensuring timely dissemination of warnings to vulnerable populations. The discussion emphasized the critical role of technology and trust and highlighted the need for prioritizing reaching the last mile.
• A session on ‘The role of technology in warnings – now and the future’focused on the opportunities that the growth in information and communication technologies offers in reaching more people, more rapidly in critical situations. ITU, Everbridge and representatives from the government of the Netherlands and Nepal discussed the role of regulation and mobile EWS, in particular the use of cell-broadcast for public alerts.
• EW4All Funders Briefing: EW4All progress with technical implementation and country rollout was presented at a funder’s briefing, taking stock of potential collaboration opportunities and value added of the Initiative.
• Early Warnings and Action in Fragile Contexts: the WMO – UNDRR Centre of Excellence on Climate and Disaster Resilience hosted a consultation workshop, as part of the development of a Handbook on implementing early warnings in FCVs (14 September, Geneva); the session collected expert insights towards the content, focus and structure of the Handbook, which will be launched at COP28.
• EW4All Heatwave Warnings: WMO expert writing group convened 4-8 September to review WMO internal report on State of Extreme Heat Services and respond to reviewers of update to WMO-No. 1142, Heatwaves and Heat-Health: Guidance on Early Warning System Development. Experts also discussed Task Team progress in preparing a Handbook of Extreme Heat Indicators and Indices and met with WMO stakeholders for Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Services, Education and Training, to discuss plans for the development of training materials. This suite of documentation will standardise extreme heat services, including an impact-based heatwave intensity definition that supports health, critical infrastructure and livelihood decision makers.
• The UNGA and Climate Ambition Week (17-24 September) that will take place in New York will include a number of EW4All related events and discussions, including:
  • The UNSG’s Climate Ambition Summit, 20 September, which will include a 30 minute segment on EW4All at 3pm.
  • The SDG Pavilion in the North Lawn will have a EW4All segment at 12.00 on 20th.
  • EW4All side event confirmed for 4pm on 21 September. Hosted by AOSIS and all four pillar leads.
  • The ITU and DLA Piper EW4All panel discussion on September 20th, at 18:30 will discuss innovative technological solutions in satellite services, the use of AI, public-private partnerships, and pioneering financing solutions to support EW4All.