Le Ndiambour Hotel, Dakar, Senegal – June 14, 2022 — Representatives of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) have concluded a Two-day ECOWAS Regional Training Workshop on Measuring the Effectiveness of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems in Dakar, Senegal.
The Two-day ECOWAS training workshop which spanned from Monday 13th – 14th June 2022 at the Le Ndiambour Hotel in Dakar was organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) with the aim of strengthening the capacities of the Sendai Framework Monitoring focal points and their partners through the understanding and use of new custom indicators in the measurement and assessment of the effectiveness of multi-hazard early warning systems.
In March 2018, the UNDRR launched the online Sendal Framework Monitor (SFM) Tool which is a mechanism that is meant to help countries to annually assess their progress and challenges in the implementation of the Sendal Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 at the international, regional, national and local level. That is exactly why the training was geared towards the identification of the main stakeholders and potential partners that can contribute in assessing the effectiveness of the Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems within the national level for comparative data collection and sharing.
One of the seven global targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, Target (g), aims to “substantially increase the availability of access to multi‐hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030”. This target is measured by six (6) of the 38 indicators established for the Sendai Framework Monitoring system, which was developed by the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Indicators and Terminology Relating to Disaster Risk Reduction and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly.
The implementation of early warning systems (EWS) in the framework of the CREWS Initiative has revealed that it is necessary to explore further how countries can better assess the effectiveness of their national EWS. The global indicators for Target G are based on the four key elements for EWS promoted by the WMO: disaster risk knowledge, monitoring and forecasting, dissemination and communication, and preparedness and response. Even though the indicators measure the availability and access to EWS, they do not measure their quality/effectiveness. For that reason, a set of custom indicators for EWS was developed in the framework of the project, so that countries can measure – on a voluntary basis – the effectiveness of their multi-hazard EWS, in accordance with their individual context. Indeed, countries can choose in the SFM system which indicators seem relevant in view of their specific situation.
According to NDMA’s Representatives, Mr. John V. Rogers, Deputy Director-General and Thomas A. Lebbie, Director of Risk Reduction & Preparedness, the topics offered in the just concluded training include: Disaster risk knowledge, Governance of multi-hazard EWS, Detection, monitoring, analysis and forecasting, Dissemination and Communication and Preparedness and response in national disaster management.
They further disclosed that at the end of the training, representative from the various ECOWAS Regions shall be able to: Understand the main concepts underpinning disaster risk reduction and multi-hazard early warning systems; Identification of the custom indicators to measure the effectiveness of multi-hazard EWS that are relevant to their various setting and the Identification of the main stakeholders and potential partners who can contribute to the assessment of the effectiveness of their national multi-hazard EWS for data collection and data sharing.
For More Enquiries:
Directorate of Communications
National Disaster Management Agency
Contact: +23278388946
Email: mohamedlbah@ndma.gov.sl
