Coordination between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and National Disaster Risk Management Offices (NDRMOs) is essential for the implementation of the United Nations Early Warning for All (EW4All) initiative. Such coordination is the only way to ensure that early warning services and disaster risk knowledge are disseminated to the most vulnerable and that they enabled through preparatory action to effectively respond. The first Regional Summit between NMHSs and NDRMOs, held in Uruguay on 27 February, aimed to strengthen operational work and institutional coordination between the national institutions in accordance with their legislation. The event was preparatory to the VIII Session of the Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (RP-23 DRR) in the Americas and the Caribbean from 28 February to 2 March.
In addition to the NMHSs and NDRMOs, key actors from UN, international and regional agencies participated in the discussions, which also defined challenges and opportunities in the implementation of the EW4ALL initiative. The RP-23 DRR context provided an excellent opportunity to discuss these issues and to create a precedent for collaboration among the stakeholders.
The Regional Summit agreed on a roadmap with priority actions for EW4ALL:
- Ensure regional and sub-regional level dialogue to identify and overcome shared challenges and create opportunities for cross-border collaborations and synergy
- Involve other national and regional actors that have a role to play in the implementation of multi-hazard early warnings systems (MHEWS), such as geological surveys and epidemiological institutions
- Improve data sharing between NMHSs, NDRMOs and other stakeholders
- Improve collaboration between institutions to advance the implementation of impact-based forecasting
- Strengthen legislative and policy frameworks for disaster risk reduction, defining clear roles and responsibilities for every participating institution
- Integrate and make financing and investments for disaster risk reduction and MHEWS visible within national budgets
- Advance the implementation of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), supported by follow-up mechanisms at the national level, to reach the last mile.
These outcomes were included in the Ministerial Declaration of RP-23 DRR: Declaration of Punta del Este. The implementation of the roadmap is now being discussed at the sub-regional level.
The Summit, organized by WMO and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), attracted some 100 representatives from the Latin America and Caribbean region.
