In January 2020 in Mombasa (Kenya), several Continental, Regional and National stakeholders endorsed the Africa Road Map for Improving the Availability, Access and Use of Disaster Risk Information for Early Warning and Early Action, including in the Context of Transboundary Risk Management. The Road Map was inspired by a study visit which showcased the Italian Civil Protection System, including the know-how and technology, and the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, organized by UNDRR in partnership with CIMA Research Foundation, and attended by High Level and senior Manager delegates from the African Union Commission, Regional Economic Communities and African Member States. It envisages the strengthening of Africa institutions on four main area: risk knowledge monitoring and forecasting, communication and dissemination and response capacity.
In December 2019, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission H.E Moussa Faki, requested to the Prime Minister of Italy H. E. Giuseppe Conte the support for the establishment of a continental early warning system in Africa. The Government of Italy financed a first project for the implementation of the Road Map with a financial contribute of euro 3 M for 2021 and the commitment for additional euro 2 M for the following year. Beyond the financial support and the technological tool made available by the project, the African Union appreciated the technical partnership with the Italian Civil Protection system, including through the Centri di Competenza, technical scientific centers providing tools and services to civil protection authorities.
Within this first project financed by the Government of Italy, the African Union Commission (AUC) Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, with the support, UNDRR and CIMA Research Foundation, is setting up the African Multi-Hazard Early Warning and Action System (AMHEWS) for DRR, that will serve as information hub for AUC organs and will facilitate coordination mechanism for improving disaster preparedness, data access and risk information exchange. This system aims at establishing a continental Early Warning System (EWS) that will be able to trigger appropriate and timely early actions in the field of early warning and transboundary risk management. Equally, it will enhance vertical and horizontal coordination mechanism and facilitate the access to and the exchange of risk data and information to Member States and decision makers at the continental, regional and national level, while developing a harmonized system for continental warnings, useful to keep decision makers and international communities informed on ongoing and upcoming hazards. Accordingly, the enhanced coordination mechanism established, will equally facilitate the development and implementation of continental, subregional and national policies for the harmonized implementation of the Sendai Framework for DRR across the continent. As such, the project specifically looks at Target G of the Sendai Framework “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 Target E “Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020”, linking EW to the more comprehensive national strategies.
This project builds on the outcomes of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP)-European Union (EU) “Building Disaster Resilience to Natural Hazards in Sub-Saharan African Regions, Countries and Communities Programme”, which ended in February 2020.
The AUC and RECs will take the lead on this. Member States, Regional Climate Centres were identified as collaborators who are expected to contribute to the process leading up to the establishment and operationalization of the said systems. UNDRR has been tasked to provide, coordination, policy advice and technical guidance and communication support to ensure the effective implementation of the road map. The following key project results have been achieved:
- Legal and Institutional Framework for Early Warning System in Africa. The Framework has been supported jointly by UNDP and UNDRR and has been validated on 22/10/2021 during the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System Conference by the technical representative of AU member state. The Framework will be submitted for endorsement to the next AU head of state summit in December 2021.
- The AMHEAS for DRR is be composed by a Continental Situation Room in AUC headquarter, connected with newly established Situation Room of the Disaster Operations Centre of IGAD and the Multi-Hazard Early Warning Advisory Centre at ACMAD and at IGAD. The 3 centres have been equipped with hardware investment of about 500.000 USD. The situation room in IGAD-ICPAC will be inaugurated the 27Th of October, as part of the inauguration of the new ICPAC premises in Kenya, the continental situation room on 26th of November (t.b.c) and ACMAD centre before the end of November. The three centres will operate to facilitate timely exchange, monitoring and analysis of DRR data and information through the open-source platform myDEWETRA, developed by the Italian Civil Protection and CIMA research foundation, also endorsed by WMO and African Stakeholders.
- Standard Operating Procedures and data sharing policies have been developed for operating the system, the Situation room in AUC, the IGAD and ACMAD centres and for a common alerting system at continental level. The standard operation procedure support the preparation of two important information product of the AMHEWS for DRR:
- Continental Watch: provide a five days forecast over the continent for extreme weather and floods in standardized form
- Disaster Situation Report: provide best available information on current situation of ongoing disasters
- Implementation of a Flood Forecasting System for IGAD that it is expected to be completed in 2022 and will strengthening the operational capacities of providing more reliable risk information to IGAS member states as well as IGAD and AUC organs to enable early actions
- Training of operational personnel on the use of the system. The training was organized for the duty officer of the 3 centres on the use of myDEWETRA system and the preparation of the two main products of the AMHEWS for DRR: Continental Watch and Disaster Situation Report.
The project contributes to the Implementation of the Road Map which constitute a long-term programme for establishing an Early Warning System (EWS) at the continental level that will be able to trigger appropriate and timely early actions in the field of early warning and transboundary risk management.
The initiative launched through the partnership with the Government of Italy, generated interest and additional support from the European Union, the Government of Sweden and from the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative.
Project Syllabus
The project is composed by the following interrelated main high-level outcomes
- Legal and institutional review and design for Multi-Hazard Early Warning System
- Situation room functional setup: Coordination mechanism for improving data access and exchange. Establish a coordination mechanism for improving the exchange of information among continental, regional and national authorities and development of a harmonized system for warnings at continental level for informing decision makers and international communities on ongoing and up-coming hazards.
- 24/7 situation room technical setup: Equip the AUC and Regional Centre with a 24/7 situation room to facilitate exchange, monitoring and analysis of DRR data and information through the free open source platform: myDEWETRA, developed by the Italian Civil Protection and CIMA Research Foundation, also endorsed by WMO and requested by the beneficiaries of this proposal.
- Strengthening impact-based monitoring and forecasting capabilities. Build the capacity of monitoring and forecasting for natural hazards and their impacts for triggering the related early mitigations and response actions. Strengthening impact-based flood monitoring and forecasting capabilities for IGAD region. This activity will implement a probabilistic hydrological forecasting system and flood forecasting
- system at regional scale (IGAD); through intensive training courses. The new operational tools will be operated by trained personnel and used for the daily operation in the Situation Room.
- Training of operational personnel for the operation of the systems. Training of the AUC, ACMAD and RECs personnel in the use of disaster risk information in relation to DRR/DRM, EWS. Training operators, training on weather-related hazards forecasting, multinational trainings for the countries