Attachments
DROUGHTS & FLOODS
CLIMATE RISK AND EARLY WARNING INFORMATION IN ETHIOPIA
Key Messages
- Local Context Deficiency: There is a high availability of global information and models on climate risks and early warning, but a significant lack of adaptations for local context in Ethiopia.
- Main Gaps: The biggest data gaps across all identified platforms providing information in the context of floods and droughts in Ethiopia, are the limited availability of information with local context. Further major gaps are a lack of local leadership, and a lack of accessibility in local languages.
- Information Availability: More information is available on drought risk and drought early warning than on flood risk and flood early warning.
- Drought Information Development: Several initiatives and organizations (e.g., E4DRR, Water at Heart of Climate Action) are currently working on improving drought risk and early warning information in Ethiopia (e.g., NADMWS, East Africa Drought Watch).
- Flood Early Warning Gap: There is a critical shortage of early warning information for floods in Ethiopia. The lack of digitized local-level hydrological data, such as water levels of dam reservoirs, river discharges or water availability at water points is a key challenge, limiting the accuracy of global flood models at the local level in Ethiopia.
• Initiatives and Collaborations: Initiatives, like E4DRR, Early Warnings for All (EW4All), Ethiopia’s Multi-Hazard, Impact-Based Early Warning and Early Action (MHIBEWEA) System or the Water at Heart of Climate Action initiative, aim to enhance climate risk information and early
warning information in Ethiopia (e.g., development of East Africa Hazard Watch). These efforts are supported by international organizations and research institutions while being led by Ethiopian or East African authorities and organizations.
• Climate-smart programming: To enhance disaster risk reduction (DRR), early warning systems, and climate risk management in Ethiopia, future projects in the context of agricultural development, resilient infrastructures, water management, urban planning, renewable energy, or community development need to integrate climate-smart programming, considering long-term climate change impacts to ensure infrastructure and community resilience. Investing in climate-smart infrastructure and training local communities in these practices is essential for building a resilient Ethiopia.