RAIV-17/INF.4.1(1), p. 2
World Meteorological OrganizationREGIONAL ASSOCIATION IV (NORTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN)
Seventeenth Session
San José, Costa Rica, 27 to 31 March 2017 / RAIV-17/INF.4.1(1)
Submitted by:
Secretary-General
15.III.2017
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION, RESILIENCE AND PREVENTION FOCUSING ON IMPACT-BASED DECISION SUPPORT SERVICES
1. Introduction
1.1 The text at hand provides a short status report on some major activities of the WMO Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme, coordinated by the DRR Services Division at the WMO Secretariat, in relation to the development of the Implementation Plan for the WMO DRR Roadmap as well as the coordination of some of the international agreements with other UN agencies and intergovernmental organizations for implementing a risk informed agenda.
2. Meeting of the Executive Council Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction Focal Points (EC EG/DRR)
2.1 The EC WG/DRR, at their First Session in April 2016, noted the thematic areas which could be further emphasized by the existing, or by new, working groups which include multi-hazard monitoring, risk-informed early warning, prevention, and emergency assistance to NMHSs, Members and humanitarian agencies.
2.2 The Group encouraged the RAs and Members to actively engage in the regional consultation processes on disaster risk management, such as the regional and global platforms and ministerial meetings for DRR. Furthermore, the EC WG/DRR encourages NMHSs to identify, prioritize and establish partnerships and service delivery agreements with the national DRR user community and engage with them to identify their requirements. These partnerships should entrench the sovereign role of the NMHS to be the authoritative voice in issuing weather warnings for public safety at the national level.
2.3 The EC WG/DRR acknowledged the immense importance of partnerships among NMHSs and between NMHSs and other key agencies involved in DRR, especially national DRM and civil protection agencies, as well as with the various user and stakeholder groups (e.g. the media). These partnerships take on the form of agreements and standard operating procedures with partner agencies, NMHSs’ engagement in national DRR decision-making fora (e.g. national DRR platforms, national climate outlook fora), collaborative projects, engagement in knowledge networks, etc.
2.4 The EC WG/DRR requested the Secretariat to develop protocols/procedures and processes by which Members could be assisted by their neighbouring NMHSs or other NMHSs in the event that their capacity to provide critical services to their own communities is seriously affected. This assistance could be activated in anticipation of an expected high-impact hazard event and must be cognisant of existing arrangements and mechanisms that are already in place. It will identify the roles of the key stakeholders identified during the meeting. This will require some work with the RAs and the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs).
3. Meetings of the WMO Disaster Risk Reduction Focal Points of Regional Associations, Technical Commissions and Technical Programmes (DRR FP RA-TC-TP) since previous RA IV session
3.1 The second meeting of the WMO DRR Focal Points of Regional Associations, Technical Commissions and Technical Programmes (DRR FP RA-TC-TP) was held from 3 to 5November 2015 at the WMO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
3.2 The third meeting of the DRR FP RA-TC-TP took place from 14 to 16December2016 at the WMO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
4. Endorsement by EC-68 to establish an inter-programme task team for the implementation of Resolution 9 (Cg-17)
4.1 In support of the Sendai Framework’s first Priority for Action, Cg-17, through adoption of its Resolution 9, decided to standardize weather, water, climate, space weather and other related environmental hazard information. Cg-17 also requested CBS to develop, in collaboration with all TCs and RAs, a proposal on standardized identifiers for cataloguing hazardous and extreme weather, water and climate events for consideration by EC. These measures will promote interoperability among datasets and facilitate Members’ efforts to assess risks and track climate-related loss and damage. Enhanced capabilities to monitor and model future climate conditions will improve the attribution of extreme weather, water and climate events to climate change. These capabilities will also facilitate preparedness and adaptation at all timescales and will provide quality assurance of these data, including the official designation/validation of extreme events and archiving of event data and trend indices. WMO, through its TCs, is already active and in some cases well advanced in addressing different aspects of the characterizing and cataloguing issue.
4.2 To address the decision of Cg-17 the CBS Management Group, at their sixteenth meeting in February 2016 and the EC WG/DRR at their first meeting in April, made a recommendation to EC-68, which was subsequently endorsed, to establish an Inter-Programme Task Team on Cataloguing Extreme Weather, Water and Climate Events (IPTT-CWWCE) that would coordinate activities of the various programmes in the standardization of weather, water, climate, space weather and other related environmental hazard and risk information and the development of identifiers for cataloguing extreme weather, water and climate events. The IPTT-CWWCE is co-chaired by both CBS and the Commission for Climatology (CCl) and commenced work at its first meeting in September 2016.
5. WMO international activities related to multi-hazard early warning systems
5.1 In line with the Sendai Framework and building upon the WMO community’s considerable capacities that contribute to multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS), WMO is playing a key role in developing and promoting the International Network for MHEWS (INMHEWS) as well as in the conduct of a Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference from 22 to 23May 2017 as a pre-meeting to the 2017 Global Platform for DRR from 24 to 26 May 2017, both taking place in Cancún, Mexico (more details below).
5.2 Furthermore, the first meeting of the WMO DRR User-Interface Expert Advisory Group on MHEWS (UI-EAG MHEWS), since EC-68 called the User-Interface Working Group on MHEWS (UI-WG MHEWS), took place from 19-21 April 2016 in Geneva.
6. Drawing benefits for WMO Members from international agreements through coordination with other United Nations agencies and intergovernmental organizations for implementing a risk-informed 2030 Agenda
6.1 The Executive Council Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction (EC WG/DRR) commended the Secretariat for active involvement in the inter-agency mechanisms supporting the coordinated implementation of major United Nations strategies (including the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030, the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development), in particular within the framework of the updated United Nations Plan of Action on DRR and Resilience: Towards a Risk-informed and Integrated Approach to Sustainable Development (approved by the United Nations High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) at its 31st session in March2016), to maximize benefits for WMO Members. These mechanisms include, for example, the continued collaboration with the United Nations Office for DRR (UNISDR) and the engagement in the global, regional, sub-regional and national platforms for DRR, the Inter-Agency Group (IAG) DRR Focal Points mechanism, the High-Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP), the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Indicators and Terminology Relating to DRR (OIEWG DRR), the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) processes in many least developed and developing countries and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).
6.2 The Sendai Framework specifically calls upon the UN system to support its implementation in a coordinated manner, bringing together coherently the efforts of UN entities pursued within their respective mandates. This reflects the broader expectation of Member States for coherent and coordinated support that maximizes synergies, harnesses the potential of partnerships, and optimizes the efficient use of financial and other resources across the UN system.
Strengthening UN System coherence and effectiveness in Disaster Risk Reduction
6.3 Since 2013, UN system support in disaster risk reduction has been guided by the first UN Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience. It has been largely based on the cumulative efforts of the United Nations to support the Hyogo Framework for Action. Its commitments and actions are focused on: quality assistance to countries; ensuring disaster risk reduction is a priority for the UN system; and to ensure disaster risk reduction is central to post-2015 development agreements and targets.
6.4 This revised plan, entitled: “UN Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction: Towards a Risk-informed and Integrated Approach to Sustainable Development”, has been prepared in light of the new international policy and operational context, in particular, to ensure coherence with respect to climate change risk and the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as to address the challenges identified in the reviews of progress[1].
6.5 The revised Plan provides for a stronger alignment of the UN’s work in disaster risk reduction with other UN system-wide approaches on related issues. In particular, it provides actions to align with the forthcoming UN system-wide strategic approach to climate change, such as:
(a) System-wide and joint approaches for integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in UN development efforts;
(b) Coherent approaches in the support by the UN for measuring the loss and damage of disasters and climate change;
(c) Joint monitoring of progress in integrating risk reduction and climate change adaptation in UN operational work.
6.6 The work of the UN system, in the context of the implementation of the revised Plan, will continue to cover the risk to disasters caused by natural hazards (geophysical, meteorological, hydrological and climatological) including extreme climate events, both slow and sudden onset, as well as strengthen activities related to other hazards, including technological and biological threats. The ability to assess and manage risk due to the interaction between hazards, their cascading effects, and links to the risk of conflict, will be required.
The UN Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience: Towards a Risk-informed and Integrated Approach to Sustainable Development
6.7 In order to achieve the above, the revised Plan outlines 3 Commitments and 11Expected Results. The Commitments are: (1) strengthen system-wide coherence in support of the Sendai Framework and other agreements, through a risk-informed and integrated approach; (2) build UN system capacity to deliver coordinated, high-quality support to countries on disaster risk reduction; and (3) ensure disaster risk reduction remains a strategic priority for UN organizations.
6.8 While the revised Plan has a time horizon of 2030, to align itself with the Sendai Framework and the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it also recognizes the need to accelerate support to countries on key priorities by 2020. These more immediate results have been identified as the initial requirements necessary to achieve a risk-informed approach to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
7. Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems Conference (MHEWC)
7.1 The Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference (MHEWC) will aim to demonstrate to countries how they can improve the availability of, and their communities’ access to, multi-hazard early warning, risk information and assessment and is therefore directly linked to the achievement of the Sendai Framework Target G.
7.2 Despite significant progress in strengthening early warning systems across the world, often by making use of advances in science and technology, unmet needs remain. Disasters are increasing in frequency and severity in most areas, with climate change and variability exacerbating the situation. Many developing countries, in particular least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing states (SIDS), and landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), have not benefited as much as they could have from advances in the science, technology and governance behind early warning systems. Significant gaps remain, especially in reaching the “last mile” - the most remote and vulnerable populations at the community level with timely, understandable and actionable warning information, including lack of capacities to make use of the information. The resulting societal benefits of early warning systems have thus been spread unevenly across regions, countries and communities.
7.3 Currently, efforts are needed to determine how multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) should combine risk and impact information from multiple sources in their warning messages and integrate technical, social and financial capacities dedicated to different hazards through coordination mechanisms among stakeholders, including effective feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement. Such a multi-hazard approach to early warning systems can provide economies of scale and eventually sustainability of the system as a whole. However, such approaches require extensive coordination, expertise and engagement of all relevant stakeholders in order to provide effective user-oriented, end-to-end early warnings, risk information and assessment of hazardous events that may occur simultaneously or cumulatively over time, taking into account their potential interrelated effects.
7.4 The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretariat, along with other international and national agencies, established the International Network for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (INMHEWS) as a major outcome of the session on Early Warning at the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015. This multi-stakeholder partnership will facilitate the sharing of expertise and good practice on strengthening MHEWS as an integral component of national strategies for disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and building resilience. In doing so, it will support the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, especially the achievement of its global target on MHEWS, and the United Nations Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience. The Conference is expected to be one of the first major activities to which IN-MHEWS will contribute.
Needs/key issues to be addressed and support of Members’ needs and priorities
7.5 The outcomes of the Conference will highlight strategies and actions required to build, promote and strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems, especially how to address key gaps such as faster and broader dissemination of warnings and the quality of the information provided to those at risk at the “last mile”, through capacity development, operational support and improved coordination and governance.
7.6 The Conference will be used to define an approach to establish national baselines on early warning systems to be used by government agencies to report on advances in early warning efforts on a periodic basis as contemplated in the Sendai Framework. A main goal is therefore to take stock of the current level of development of single and multi-hazard early warning systems, i.e. their effectiveness, related actors and partnerships, coordination mechanisms, partnerships and gaps. The Conference is also expected to: