MHEWC-III Status, gaps and ways forward - Thematic perspective: Preparedness, early action, anticipatory action; Humanitarian angle

Session objective

Early warning is not effective unless it leads to anticipatory action that reaches the most vulnerable and at risk people in the hardest to reach places to save lives, reduce impact on livelihoods and loss and damage on infrastructures. The objectives of the session are to demonstrate the benefits of anticipatory action on the ground and the need for risk-informed preparedness for response actions that ensure the safety and dignity of all people. The session will demonstrate the benefits when organisations invest in institutional preparedness capacities, collaborate closely with the communities at risk on identifying suitable early actions, and engage with national authorities and national meteorological services, civil protection agencies to link early warning and early action with longer term risk-informed humanitarian response and resilience building. The panellists will highlight examples of engaging the local communities on adapting appropriate early warning messages and platforms, and connecting them to  national hydrometeorological agencies’ and other service providers (e.g. tsunami service providers) capacities to issue threat information/alerts  as well as impact-based forecasting information/products. The session will also touch upon strengthening the institutional preparedness through developing and revising contingency plans/standard operating procedures, strategically pre-positioning stocks in high-risk areas, employing effective procurement and logistics management systems and procedures enabling anticipatory action. In addition, the session will discuss the need to be able to access flexible humanitarian ex-ante financing which has been critical to ensure readiness activities and anticipatory action take place prior to the hazard impact. Finally, the session will identify areas where collaboration is needed among  warning centres, civil protection agencies, humanitarian and development agencies, climate and academic sectors. 

Expected outcomes

• Demonstrate how early action save lives and support livelihoods of the most vulnerable communities 

• Demonstrate how anticipatory action is enabled through investment in overall institutional preparedness  

• Demonstrate the need to continuously learn from, engage with, and empower communities and local actors in decision-making processes to enhance preparedness, early action and early response 

• Demonstrate the importance of linking hydrometeorological scientists with humanitarian practitioners to enable an effective link between early warning and early action. 

• Build an understanding of the different types of early actions for different hazards, across sectors and different organizations and the value of having early action protocols (or plans) in place with pre-agreed financing.