Attachments
Key Overview
• Community-based early warning systems (CBEWS) bridge crucial gaps in providing early warning for all.
• CBEWS emphasise anticipatory action by empowering communities to monitor and prepare for risks, rather than respond to disasters.
• CBEWS require community participation and inclusion of marginalised groups.
State of the Art
Community-based early warning systems (CBEWS) provide community members with the information they need to assess the risk they are facing and make decisions to protect their lives and livelihoods. They are distinct from national scale early warning systems in that they are developed and implemented at the community level. CBEWS can play a critical role in bridging the gaps in coverage of national early warning systems [2]. The reasons for these gaps in national early warning systems are often also reasons for these communities being especially vulnerable to the impacts of hazards. Insufficient infrastructure and resources in comparison with needs affects the coverage of weather and climate observations and the ability to disseminate urgent information, so CBEWS are essential for achieving “early warning for all”.
CBEWS emphasise community empowerment and ownership of the system at every stage, collaborating with community members to assess the hazards they face, the factors that affect their vulnerability, and the capacities that are in place to deal with them, and empowering communities to prepare for hazards as well as respond to them [4,5,6]. This ownership is integral to the long-term sustainability of CBEWS, which means that the system can adapt to changes over time.
Another key gap that CBEWS address is between receiving a warning and acting on it. By bringing communities into the centre of the system, emphasising the development of warnings that are useful and accessible, and identifying ways for people to respond to warnings that are feasible and relevant, CBEWS enable anticipatory action at the community level.