Background

The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR), annually celebrated on 13 October since 2009, promotes global awareness about the prevention and reduction of disaster risk and disaster losses in lives, livelihoods as well as in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental spheres. It provides an opportunity to acknowledge the progress that has been made as well as to identify lessons learned and good practices to further reduce disaster risk and losses.

This year, the IDDRR will focus on the seventh Sendai Framework Global Target G: “Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030.” A key milestone of Target G is to enable countries to establish and develop multi-hazard early warning systems (EWS), which allow governments, communities, and people to prevent and mitigate and better prepare for the adverse impact of disasters affect sectors and systems, including agriculture and food systems.

Against this background, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), marks the 2022 IDDRR by organizing an event to showcase FAO’s and partners’ commitment, efforts and good practices in promoting and developing multi-hazard early warning systems and how to best synergize the existing sector-specific early warning systems with other systems to ensure holistic, timely, and impact-oriented alerts linked to anticipatory actions ahead of shocks to save and protect people’s lives, food security, agricultural livelihoods activities.

Specifically, the event will feature the scope and efforts of FAO’s and partners’ existing global, regional and national EWS to enable anticipatory action against global, transboundary and national threats to agriculture and food security, such as  drought, floods, landslides, animal and plant pests and diseases, and how synergies between these systems can be generated to help risk-inform the design, formulation, implementation and monitoring of disaster risk reduction and management policies, planning and actions. The event will also present the highlight of the Words-into-Action (WiA) Guide for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems jointly developed by the UN system and partners.

Objectives of the event

The event aims to:

• Highlight the importance of multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments in the prevention, mitigation, and management of compounding and cascading risks.
• Share experiences, challenges, and lessons learned on the development of multi-hazard early warning systems, the integration of existing single hazard early warning systems, and disaster risk information and assessments from multiple countries and regions where FAO and partners operate and explore avenues for progress in a multi-hazard perspective.
• Identify pathways for scaling up existing support from FAO, WMO, UNDRR and partners to enable countries to setup, apply, and manage multi-hazard early warning systems for agri-food systems and disaster risk information and assessments (at the regional/national/subnational level).

Tentative agenda

(Duration: 90 minutes)

Moderator: Mr Shukri Ahmed, Deputy Director, FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience

Welcoming

Opening Session

• Remarks by  Mr Laurent Thomas, Deputy Director-General, FAO
• Remarks by Ms Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of UNDRR
• Keynote address by Mr Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization

Setting the scene: Where do we stand?

• Introduction by the Moderator
• Update on the reporting progress of Sendai Target G – by Mr Animesh Kumar, UNDRR

Panel discussion

Part II: Zooming in sector specific early warning systems

• Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS) for drought risk management by Mr Oscar Rojas, FAO-OCB
• Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) by Mr Alexander Baklanov, WMO
• Global Animal Disease Information System (EMPRES) by Mr Andrea Capobianco Dondona, FAO-NSAH
• Desert Locust Information Systems (DLIS) by Mr Alexandre Latchininsky, FAO-NSP
• Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) by Mr Nicholas Haan, FAO-ESA-OER

Part II: Toward multi-hazard early warning systems and more preventative actions

• Risk-informed approach for food crisis prevention by Ms Wirya Khim, FAO-OER
• Philippines’ experience in developing/implementing multi-hazard early warning systems – TBC
• Community-based Early Warning System by Mr Jurg Wilbrink  IFRC
• Word-into-Action Guide for a Multi-Hazard Early Warning System by Ms Sandra Amlang, UNDRR
• The UN Global Early Warning/Adaptation resolution: Closing early warning gaps by 2027 by Ms Katrin Ehlert, WMO

Questions and Answers with all panelists

Reflection and way forward – by Ms Dunja Dujanovic, Programme and Results Team Leader, FAO-OER