Creating Effective Warnings For All Conference

Bringing together global expertise to explore the role of warnings in managing vulnerabilities, hazards, risks, and disasters is essential to save countless lives every year, and support day-to-day living and vulnerability reduction. With an unprecedented focus on warnings following the announcement of the UN Secretary-General's five-year goal of 'Early Warnings For All’, delivering Target G of the Sendai Framework to “substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030”, and the Mid-Term Review of the Sendai Framework in May 2023, and the development of an International pandemic agreement (WHO CA+) following the global impact of COVID-19, global collaboration across all stakeholders is essential to ensure lasting success for warnings of the future. To date, there has already been significant work between many UN entities, the private sector, and financing institutions during COP27, and several agencies are leading the work on the four individual pillars as outlined in the the Early Warnings For All Executive Action Plan 2023 – 2027. Three key issues are critical to ensure effective warnings for all hazards, and human-made threats:

1. The fundamental issues that link the four individual elements of warnings as outlined by the UN [(i) risk knowledge, (ii) monitoring and warning services, (iii) dissemination and communication and (iv) response capability] are often the points where warnings fail. It is critical to examine the ‘core element’ otherwise the four elements stand alone and do not achieve their goal.
2. Contributions from all stakeholders are needed to make sure warnings result in actions. This means bringing together and working across the silos in international organizations, private sector, civil society organizations, local communities, academia, across a range of geographies and hazards (both natural and human-made).
3. Valuable insights can be made by academia and the public to make sure warnings are people-centred and lessons have been identified, learnt, and implemented. Different approaches to public engagement can be integrated to make sure that warnings engage with the vulnerable as part of the ‘first’ mile, so the public are co-producers of knowledge and any warning system.

We are therefore delighted that Mami Mizutori (Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction) will be keynote speaker for the welcome session, and launch the conference virtually.

Location: UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH