Perspectives from the global south: How to move towards truly multi-hazard early warning systems

The global Early Warnings for All Initiative calls for universal access to multi-hazard early warning systems. Yet what multi-hazard means when applied practically to an early warning system remains unclear and realities on the ground lag behind. Most early warning systems, in practice, are designed for single hazards and fail to account for how communities at risk face hazards that interact in several ways. This can result in confusing messages or contradictory advice, precisely when people at risk need a clear course of action.

This work seeks to address the gap in understanding how multi-hazard early warning systems can be operationalised in the global South. It considers how to design and implement people-centred multi-hazard early warning systems that explicitly account for differentiated vulnerabilities and capacities, and how age, gender, disability, language, social status, etc., shape whether people can receive, trust, and act on a warning.

Case studies from the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance’s work in the Philippines, Nepal, and Peru will highlight the capacities and considerations needed to design people-centred multi-hazard early warning systems. In particular, this research reflects on the existing capacities and priorities for multi-hazard resilience across the four pillars of early warning systems: disaster risk knowledge; monitoring and forecasting; warning and dissemination; and preparedness and response. From this work, we critically assess where national early warning systems are on the multi-hazard early warning system spectrum, explore actions for progressing forward on the spectrum, and reflect on how to integrate community-based and inclusive approaches to ensure that messages and early actions are co-designed with those most at risk.