EW4 All Initiative, where cooperation is the key of success

Experts discuss global early warning coverage under the “Early Warning for All” initiative

During a detailed session on the “Learning for All” initiative, experts gathered to discuss the “Early Warning for All” initiative, launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2022, aiming to cover every person on Earth with early warning systems by 2027. This initiative is structured around four pillars, each spearheaded by a different organization: the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) leads disaster risk knowledge, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is in charge of detection and observation, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) oversees dissemination and communication, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) manages preparedness and response capabilities.

Fanny Langella from the UNDRR highlighted the critical importance of disaster risk knowledge, pointing out that effective early warning systems necessitate a comprehensive set of risk data, which includes information on hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and connectivity. She addressed the significant challenge that half of the world’s countries lack early warning coverage. The initiative’s goal is to ensure that risk information is not only available but also informs multi-hazard early warning systems across all pillars.

Amelie Grangéat from ITU discussed the dissemination and communication pillar, emphasizing the need for a multi-channel approach to ensure that alerts reach people through various platforms. She mentioned the reliance on estimation using data from Microsoft and Facebook to distinguish between internet access and mobile access, highlighting the importance of digital networks and mobile operators in crisis communication. Grangéat also pointed out that while smartphones are widespread, their penetration varies by country, and it is essential to maintain additional channels for crisis communication to ensure no one is left behind.

Nathan Cooper from IFRC spoke about the preparedness and response capabilities pillar, focusing on the need for communities to be organised and ready to respond to warnings. He discussed the role of local volunteers and the importance of connecting community voices to national-level efforts. Cooper also mentioned several platforms the IFRC is working on, such as the Global Crisis Data Bank and the Alert Hub, which aggregate and disseminate alerts.

Ahmed Nadeem from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) highlighted the role of broadcasting in disaster management, noting that the media should be considered an ally in all parts of the disaster chain. He emphasised the importance of using all available technologies and channels to disseminate information, including traditional radio, which remains a powerful tool in many regions.

The session concluded with a consensus on the importance of cooperation and patience in achieving the goals of the initiative. The panellists recommended knowledge sharing, learning from past experiences, and building trust with target audiences through consistent risk communication. They also called for better coordination between different agencies and the importance of establishing standard operating procedures and legislative frameworks to support the effective implementation of early warning systems.

Noteworthy observations from the session included the recognition of the varying levels of technological infrastructure across different regions and the need to tailor approaches to the specific needs of each country. The discussion also highlighted the financial sense of investing in early warning systems, with a tenfold return on investment, and the importance of including local and indigenous knowledge in risk assessments. The panel’s insights emphasised the complexity of disaster management and the necessity of a holistic, inclusive approach that leverages technology, communication, and community engagement to protect populations worldwide.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Welcome, everybody, to be here at this session. We are competing with the opening of the AI for Good event. So it’s a big circle. Here, we are to talk about the Learning for All initiative. We are a stable organization trying to do the best or make a success out of it. And we want to present to the participants online what the early warning system is, what is the initiative in particular, and how it works, the cooperation of all departments. So I would give the floor first to Fanny from EMDR that represent a large part of this initiative. Please, Fanny.

Fanny Langella:
Thank you. So my name is Fanny Langella, and I’m with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, I’m the head of Continent Channel here. From Geneva, I think receiving a severe weather alert on our phone seems like something we take for granted. But in many parts of the world, that’s not the case. Half of the countries in the world are not covered by early warning system. For many, it’s a matter of life and death. And that’s why the Secretary General of the UN launched this initiative in 2022. So it’s called the Early Warning for All initiative. And our goal is to ensure that every person on Earth is protected by early warning systems by 2027. And so to make this happen, we need a broad partnership involving multiple areas of expertise and stakeholders. Because there’s a lot more to it than just sending the message and that’s why the initiative has four pillars. The first pillar is on disaster risk knowledge and it’s led by my office UNDR. The second pillar is on detection and observation and it’s led by the World Meteorological Organization. The third pillar is about dissemination and communication and is led by ITU and you will hear from our colleague later on. And the fourth pillar is on preparedness and response capabilities and is led by IFRC. And so let me say a few words about the risk knowledge pillar, the area of work that UNDR is leading. Our goal is to ensure that all the countries produce and use risk information that inform and strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems across all the pillars because risk information inform also the work across all the pillars. So a big focus of this work is around data, collecting disaggregated, timely and relevant risk data and conducting risk assessments. So when we talk about risk data, maybe the first thing that comes to mind might be data about hazards, data about a meteorological or climate data. But there’s also a lot of other relevant data sets that can and that should inform early warning systems. and the early warning system chain. One big area is data about exposure. So where are the people and the assets of the critical infrastructure that could be exposed to a disaster? And then other very important set of data is data about vulnerability. And here we speak about data about social vulnerability. So for instance, it could be a poverty level because that might inform whether or not people are able to evacuate by themselves. It could be data about Electricity. Availability of electricity. It could be also data about environmental vulnerability. So if you have land that is degraded, it might be much more susceptible to floods or landslide. And then there are other data sets, for instance, around connectivity. So if we are to send a message, an early warning message, we need to make sure that it can be received. And so if we overlap data sets on cell connectivity, radio coverage, TV coverage, we might find that they are cold spots. So areas that are where we can’t reach people and that’s an important part of risk knowledge. So a lot of data, and not all of it is necessarily big data. We also need to take into account local or indigenous knowledge about risk. And we also need to make sure that this data is open and readily accessible. So some of these data sets at the moment are owned or by other entities or they’re licensed and they’re not always readily available. So making sure that this data is available, that there are standards to present the data so that it can be interoperable. In some cases, it’s really important to be able to share this data at regional level because hazards don’t stop at the borders. So there are a lot of issues also around the governance of data. We are also helping countries collect historical data on disasters, disaster loss data, because if you can see where you have the highest losses, it can also help prioritize where risk reduction efforts should focus. So all this data, we need to make it available, not only at the time of the disaster, but also to inform communities, to inform decision makers so we can prioritize the risk reduction efforts. And so that involves also communicating about risk and here we need also partnership with other stakeholders too, like the media, and that’s why we have here the broadcasting unions with us. and to make sure that communities and decision makers understand the nature of risk and can prepare for it. So the early warning for all, it’s really an ambitious goal but we think it’s achievable and we think it makes financial sense because investment in early warning systems have a tenfold return on investment. So we think it’s worth it and we believe we can achieve this. And I think there are many opportunities for many hands to contribute to the goal of early warning for all and I hope this panel inspires some collaboration. Thank you.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you very much, Fanny. If you are interested in Pompeii, you are collecting historical data, Pompeii is 79 before Christ. So are you going back to that point?

Fanny Langella:
I’m not sure we are going back this far.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
I can provide data like this. So this is a global picture, let’s say, that we have seen. As you mentioned, there are different pillars. One of the pillars that is more important for us in this context, because we are in WSIS, is about communication, how to reach the population, how to interact with the telecom and the broadcasting infrastructure. So we have pillar two. Three. Three.

Amelie Grangéat:
But it’s all right. Can you put the slide on, please? No problem.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
I was looking at it, but it doesn’t look very… Yeah, I’m the second one, but it’s still three. It’s solid as a paper.

Amelie Grangéat:
Okay, so thank you for the introduction. My name is Dr. Amélie Mironja. I work at ITU on pillar three, so the warning, dissemination and communication. education. And before that, I followed a PhD on crisis management and resilience, when resilience is really the keyword of this early warning for all initiative. Next slide, please. So if you, so this is just to put with a drawing what my colleague of UNDR just said, Julia. So we have four pillars, when we talk about an early warning for all, we have four pillars, in other words, it’s not an early warning for all. And so she just presented on the top left, the disaster risk knowledge, but we need also to develop the monitoring, the forecasting capacity, the warning, and include that towards the community’s understanding and make them have actionable information, otherwise it means nothing. So she has presented the top left, my colleague of IFRC will present the green, the green round, and I will focus on the, on the pillar three. So which is really how to broadcast the alert within the early warning system. Next slide, please. So what are the different outcomes you can expect from this pillar? So the first one is what we call governance, right? Because it’s important to set up the roles and responsibilities of all of these actors along the warning dissemination process. And this should be put into a government policy, right? Software means nothing if there’s not the adequate government policy in front of it. The second point is of course the service per se, the infrastructure in terms of networks and the service. So it’s what we call the last mile communication. So in this outcome too, we promote a multichannel approach because in crisis management, one of the channels may simply fall. So we talk about satellite, we talk about radio, cell broadcast, SMS television. and web, social media, sirens. Everything that is connectable should be connected. And we have here the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union online, who will present more this part. But I know there’s also in the room the European Broadcasting Union here. So I think it’s really a key factor is to push on as many channels as possible and so to engage this stakeholder into this multi-channel approach. The third outcome of the Pillar 3 is inclusion and people-centered approach. Because of course, the goal is to reach everyone. Everyone means an inclusive approach. So it implies to send this information into trusted and most preferable channel of these people with actionable information. So it implies to work on the information sent through this net. The fourth outcome is equality and trust. Because of course, we must maintain an interoperability and trust in the alert. Otherwise, the next time that you send an alert, no one will believe it. So it’s really important. And for that, we need to train the alerting authority and to make sure that every time there’s an alert push, it’s pushed on the same format, which is called the human alerting protocol for all media and all hazards. So I’m going to develop that a little bit further as well. So next slide, please. So the next slide is about, so it doesn’t work anymore, don’t you? I can do it. No, it doesn’t work anymore. So anyway, the next slide was on the importance of digital networks and especially mobile network operators. Because we’ve seen with the development of digital technology that now almost four out of five people in the world owns a smartphone, and that we we don’t have the slide or I’ll make it by heart but if you you will correct me on the numbers that the huge majority of the population got access to a mobile network services. So 95% of the world population is covered by mobile network so we do promote multi-channel approach but the most important channel for us is called cell broadcast because if four out of five people in the world got a smartphone you can basically have your sirens in the pocket so that’s why we we have an emphasis on the cell broadcast and the digital community. So it would have been more comfortable for you with the list on screen and then this one but I will list it for you thank you very much for your technical assistance because the last slide is about technical assistance but for killer three not for a slide sharing so the first thing is to assess the situation right of the current warning and dissemination because the idea is not to reinvent the wheel so if there’s something in the countries we need absolutely to build based on that and so we need to assess the current use of different channels we also need to assess the necessary steps to implement the adequate channels within the country so that’s an assessment of the different steps and the roadmap establishment we also conduct the assessments of the legislation and the standard operation procedure because of course it’s good to be of the software or a service but it needs to be embedded within the right the right context and legislation and we’re finished by this assessment phase, the national gap analysis of the digital infrastructure and resilience. Because if we say that we promote this digital network for sending in the net, we need, of course, to assess their own resilience. So that’s the first thing. So the first step is really assessment. No, if you can just… The second point is really the technical assessment. So it’s to support countries in the establishment of the national emergency communication plan, because when we face disaster, and that it can scratch the infrastructure, well, they need to know how to behave, how to repair. So that’s really important to develop a national emergency communication plan. Here we are. I’m on the fifth slide, please. Okay. Wonderful. So we are on the second part. No, no, no, it’s this one. No, it was the right one. Okay, sorry. No, it’s okay. Then, of course, once we have identified all the standard operation procedure we need to develop and the most appropriate dissemination channel, it should go through a bidding document. So we have countries drawn this bidding document as well. We have them on the common routing protocol, and I will go through this a little bit later, and to plan all this inclusion with the different broadcasters. So that’s what we call the last mile connectivity. The third point is to build the capacity of the different countries because here we have assessed the needs, we have built a system, but of course, there’s people behind the system. And so we need to train them to organise drills regularly to make sure that this tool is used and correctly used. And for that, we also need to embed from the start all the broadcasters and all the other actors who relay the warnings, because it’s not just a governmental thing, it’s fully a public and private sector cooperation. And also an important activity of ITU is to help the countries by identifying possible funding opportunities. That’s it. So I’m running a little bit late because of this slide issue, so I don’t know if I can have my extra joker with us. So when we talk about the Common Uniting Protocol, it’s really, really important because this talk is called How Cooperation Leads to Success. So CAP is really the link between the WMO, UNDR and IFRC, because we received CAP from the WMO on their forecasting and monitoring capacity, and we push them towards community via CAPFED, two different broadcasters. So it’s really the Common Uniting Protocol who will make the link between the different part of this early warning for all, and make sure everything is coherent. Can you go to the next slide, please? Thank you. And of course, once you reach the community, it must be understood, it must be trusted, it must be on the appropriate communication channel with a style that suits them and make them take the appropriate actions, otherwise, you’ve missed the full things, you have to pay for a full system, which means nothing. So it’s really, really important that here, we work closely with IFRC, who knows the field and the culture. So that’s why we always say about cooperation, that it’s really, really important. So IFRC is the real last mile, the community, and it’s really important to work together with them from the start. Next slide. So that will be my last slide. So my colleague from UNDR… I just introduced the necessary of data to understand the risk and to make sure we reach people. I would like just to highlight this initiative from ITU together with GSMA. It’s the Disaster Connectivity Map. So we built a map where we cross the near real-time connectivity around the globe. And so we cross it with the exposure to make sure that we understand where there are places where actually digital service cannot reach or there’s been a break of this digital service and the high exposure. So that’s why we identify area of priority. And that’s an initiative based on AI and satellite imagery. So that’s the kind of technical initiative we can also provide to countries. If there are countries in the room, we can be a good partner to set up this pilot. That’s it. Thank you very much. Sorry for the disturbance for the slides. And so happy to pass to my other colleagues.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you, Amelie. Just one question about the last slide. Can you distinguish when you do this real-time between the internet access and the mobile access?

Amelie Grangéat:
Actually, we use Microsoft data for that and also Facebook data. So it’s estimation, but to try to make that.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
So you can distinguish. Yeah. Thank you very much. So I’m Nadim, Secretary General of APU. It’s summer tenure. So have you heard until now? Yes. So what is the problem? As you have heard from Amelie, when she talked about last mile, she was thinking to you also.

Ahmed Nadeem:
Yes. Thank you.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
The last mile.

Ahmed Nadeem:
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Jacob. I hope you can hear me clearly. Thank you, Franny and Amelie for sharing those. points I think are very, very relevant. I’ll come back to some of those points later on, but I just wanted to highlight the role of broadcasting and what we have been doing in the past. I think just to note that from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting point of view, we got involved very much in this area after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, where we started working with a lot of broadcasters trying to understand how and where the communications failed. At that time, we worked very well with UNESCO at that time through multiple projects trying to disseminate information. The focus at that time was very much on technology, and we worked very closely with our Japanese broadcasting colleagues from NHK, where they have a wonderful network, wonderful system in place in terms of early warning, education, information, everything related to disaster is very well established. The focus was on technology, and we ran a lot of workshops trying to make it clear for our members how broadcasting and what broadcasting can do, how we can use broadcasting channels through radio and television to educate people, to engage people, to implement the kind of early warning system that Japanese technologies were using at the time. Of course, the common alert protocol was not there, but they use their own normal analog FM to trigger early warnings using a specific kind of chip that is installed in FM receivers. So this was the kind of talk that we were giving to wherever we were going in different countries. But I think by the end of 2012, we realized that the problem was not with the technology or the systems in place. The problem was with the coordination system. Because all of these workshops that we were doing, we were inviting disaster agencies, we were inviting Met Office colleagues, we were inviting sometimes national security and sometimes army in some countries. The systems are very, very different. In some countries, when an emergency comes into place, it is the army that takes the lead. In some countries, it is the National Disaster Agency that takes the lead. But what we realized is that there’s very lack of coordination between these agencies and how they come together. That was the reason why we changed our focus from technology to mostly trying to coordinate, come up with SOPs, designing SOPs, and bringing good examples from different countries in trying to educate people. So with that in mind, we have done a lot of work with UNDR, our ongoing Seven Lives Project with UNDR is one good example of that. So I do agree very much with both Fanny and Emily, especially Emily on the last mile part, especially bringing people together, not only establishing a network for early warning, but also using clear language, how the last mile, how the people understand these messages. But that’s also very, very important. So collectively, I think it’s very important to use that. But when it comes to how to get the message to the last mile, I think there are two different things. that I feel that we need to understand. Of course, digital technology is there, especially we have heard in the last few years, wherever one of the strongest points, the new digital radio technologies try to bring forth is that they have built-in emergency warning systems within these technologies. What I mean to say is like technologies like World DABs and DRM, but what we need to understand is that, for example, from our region, digital radio, for example, is something that is not there yet. It’s something for the future probably, because what we need to understand here is that we can have a very good system in place, but if the people are not receiving the message at the right time, that will not work. For example, maybe in the majority of European countries, yes, digital radio is working very well, but if you look at Asian countries, digital radio is not there. Still, it is the same old AM and FM and shortwave. So when it comes to emergency warning, I think it’s very, very important that we look into all available facilities, whether it’s social media, whether it’s mobile communication, whether it’s SMS alerting, including broadcasting, especially using radio channels, because we feel that in small pockets in countries where large populations are dispersed in difficult to reach areas, still radio, especially AM, for example, and to some extent shortwave, still works very well. So reaching these people in time using whatever available technology, whatever available system is important. We are not saying that broadcasting is the key, but I think the important thing is not for us, for example, for us coming from the broadcast background to come and say, no, broadcasting is the key here. We have to use broadcast channels. or so. When it comes to alerting, I think we need to understand that. Go there at every available channel, use it, whether it’s mobile, whether it’s in some communities, a loudspeaker works very well. So we need to understand the ground level. We need to understand what happens in different countries, how they understand this, what moves them around. So using all available channels is very, very important. Not relying on one single technology. For example, I know when Emily said that 95% of the world is covered by mobile network. So we need to understand mobile network coverage and wireless broadband coverage are very, very different things. How many of these people do actually have smartphones? No, not all of them. So those kinds of things are there. Using, for example, social media, when you use social media, how many of these, the general understanding of social media, how many of them trust this, the sources? For example, yes, I know a lot of them have Facebook social media, but how many of them actually trust the message that comes through social media? In many cases, they may receive a message, but they would want to go and reassure it using the national broadcast channels. So those kinds of things, yes, we need to understand. It’s not about one technology. It should be about using whatever available technology is there. Get down to the communities, understand how the communities work among themselves. At one point, I think in some of our workshops in countries like Bangladesh, when we were there in Nepal, when we were there, the people in those societies, they say people don’t move to a message coming from a radio. They move to the message when a community leader gives them the message. You know, maybe the radio channels gives you the message, but until the leader says, yeah, guys, this is important. Let’s move. Then only people move. So there are situations, there are societies who are still, who has a different kind of value sets, the way they look up to people. Maybe a mobile phone will not work. And the language that is used. I think a couple of years ago in one of the hurricanes in the Philippines, after we talked to the broadcaster, we came to know the messages coming was about storm surge, storm surge. Nobody understood what is storm surge until they said, I think, the right word that is commonly used in these Filipino societies. So language is very, very important. It has to be a collective thing, using different approaches, understanding what works in different societies, what works in different countries, and then trying to use the same thing is the most important. I think I would still say that probably radio still remains to be the largest and the most widely available and strongest form of communication in terms of disseminating information. So that’s one thing. And then just to touch on some of the comments from Fanny, I remember about six or seven years ago, we had a workshop with our Indian inquiries. I can’t understand what long form that is, but they were collecting data, the data sets. And they were using the GIS mapping information to map coastal area data using an integration of Google Maps and collective data sets. to understand how much, for example, a wave of specific height, how much it will affect the number of houses in the coastal region, also knowing the kind of structures these houses have. And if it is a one meter or two meter wave, how much damage it will cause. And when they go into the map and see, it will show, it shows a simulation of how much destruction this will do based on the structures of the houses. And each house is identified by a contact number, so they can reach out to these houses, so they know whom to, I mean, not whom to reach, but how to reach to these houses so that they can inform. So I think use of technology, especially with advanced technology now, mapping this kind of data, using data to understand how well we can actually see the damage, how well we can then communicate this information back to the communities and societies to say that, okay, if this kind of wave or this kind of disaster is coming, your houses will be damaged, you need to move, and things like that. Being a bit more proactive on that, using all available technologies to implement necessary communication channels in place. I think all of these count. It’s been a long journey for ABU in this area, and we’re still continuing to learn a lot from the different engagements we have with our colleagues from different countries and different societies. So just finally to say that we need to work together. All of us coming from different agencies internationally, we need to work together to try and get all of these stakeholders in different countries on board and understand and keep a focus on what is really at stake here. So, as long as we try to bring all of these stakeholders together and come up with the system that can work for them, not every system, one system for example, what they have established in Japan, for example, NHK works very well for them, it may not work for others, because they are very advanced, they have all the technologies. For example, just last month we had a workshop with our Pacific members and we had one of our Japanese colleagues presenting to them the kind of technologies they have, when they mentioned that they have over 900 remote cameras all across Japan, everybody was like, 900 cameras? Broadcast quality 900 cameras that are remotely controlled, this is nothing, I mean one camera is enough for a country like Vanuatu or Samoa, for example. So, we can bring and show them and tell them about how other countries are doing it, but does not mean it will work for them. So, we’ll have to find, go to the ground level and find what works for them. So, that kind of work is very, very important. So, yeah, just finally wanted to say that, but I think I completely agree with comments from Tani and Emily on having, developing technologies and using all available technologies in disseminating information and wherever possible, please consider broadcasting to be part of your journey in this and part of the work, we’ll be happy to collaborate and coordinate wherever necessary. Thank you.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you very much Nadeem for this comprehensive survey of the situation and specific view from Asia-Pacific. As you said, the tsunami was a wake-up call for you already 20 years ago, so you are in the union with the advance on this ascent. We have said that it is important to communicate. The communication now has to go to communities to bring it down to the people. But people need to be organized, need to be aware, need to be prepared, ready, know where they have to go, etc. This is something that needs to be learned.

Nathan Cooper:
Thank you, everyone. Thanks, Nadim and Fanny and Emily for all the very nice comments. I got a little presentation here. I think it’s going to echo a lot of what has already been mentioned, hopefully reinforce some of those points. Just very quickly, just to give you a sense of the IFRC, because I think it is important, we’re a network of local organizations, nationally based, if you go back one, nationally based, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. As a federation, we work with the societies, we try to support them, provide resources to them, but they’re really the ones that are in charge and they’re really the ones that decide what makes the most sense for their countries. In addition to these local Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, we have a large network of volunteers. So when we talk about the local action and the need for people to understand the messages, to be aware of the messages, it’s through this network of volunteers that we’re really counting on them. They live in the communities and they can help transmit the information at a local level. They can help connect to media, they can help connect to other agencies so people understand. how to, where they receive the messages, whether the messages are trustworthy and what they can do to act on those messages. So very quickly, pillar four is all about preparedness to respond to warnings. And I think kind of the key piece there is highlighted. It’s really, you know, what actions can people take and are people able to take those actions when a message arrives? There’s a lot of connections to pillar three. There’s a lot of connections to pillar two and pillar one. And I’ll talk a little bit about the Red Cross’s role and the other pillars as well, but very much focused on helping people be prepared and able to take action when a hazard is approaching. So the role, just to reiterate it again, IFRC is the lead for pillar four. There’s some of the other agencies that have been involved in pillar four in the discussions, but really working a lot, colleagues in UNDRR under the pillar one, as well as ITU under the pillar three, WMO as well, you know, under all of these pillars. So just to talk a little bit, kind of very concrete terms, sort of what the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are offering or what we’re trying to do. And the activities, I’ve placed them in the pillars that they seem to kind of make sense, but it’s a lot of cross-cutting, it’s a lot of cross-cutting work and spans the different pillars. Under pillar one, and again, we’ve been working very closely with UNDRR, it’s really about risk and what we can provide. One of the key things we can provide is the local risk information. So doing local assessments, working with communities to understand where they’re getting their information, what are their trusted channels? As Nadim mentioned, radio is a huge one. You know, is that where certain communities are accessing information? Do they trust those channels? Are they getting it from Facebook? Are they trusting the warnings? So are they understanding the warnings? Are the warnings coming in the right languages? or people understanding them, and really just trying to get a sense of, you know, what an early warning system, how it needs to be shaped to be most effective for these last mile communities. And then another thing we really focus on is campaigns and raising awareness to the communities, you know, this is the early warning system, this is, you know, how you can expect to get the alerts and so forth. A lot of work, if you just go back quite a lot of work under pillar three again, you know, with ITU and WMO, you know, Emily talked a lot about the common alerting protocol, I deemed it as well, you know, we’re very big supporters of the common alerting protocol, you know, it’s a way of making sure we have all the information in an alert, all the key information, and that alert can be distributed, that the alert can be distributed across different channels, you know, which is hugely important that people can get an alert two, three, four times across different channels, that’s just going to reinforce the message that that alert is transmitting. We’re really big on working on the messages themselves and trying to be a bridge between the communities and the national level. So when alerts are being sent out by government, helping government to understand what is resonating, you know, and with the communities, the languages, and so forth. So we’ve done a lot of work, a lot of workshops with government, with media, especially we see media is, you know, a huge ally in helping to educate communities, you know, about what actions they can take about the danger of certain hazards. And so working very closely with media as well. And just a final thing, and Emily touched on this as well, under pillar three, you know, it’s really, you’ve got to have a good institutional framework of policy and a legislative framework. So, you know, you need governments, oftentimes, it’s not clear who does what in a time of disaster, who does the forecast, and then do they pass it to the National Disaster Agency for issuing the alert? Is that done at a national level? Is that done at a municipal level? And so helping governments to look at that and basically design policies and frameworks that can make early warning systems run more smoothly. And then finally, pillar four, and this is again where I, of course, really taking the lead. When people receive the alerts, are they organized to respond to those alerts? Do they have community action teams? Do those teams have resources that they can bring to support other community members? Do they know the vulnerable people in the community members, in the communities? Have they tested their plans, their response plans with simulations? So really trying to help people become more aware of their risks, understanding how to monitor those risks and be prepared to act when a hazard approaches. Supplies, kind of a bit more at a national level, really big on pre-stocking supplies. Cash, providing people with cash assistance where we can. A lot of times people won’t evacuate, because maybe they don’t have the resources to do that. So is there an opportunity to provide people with cash so they can pack up their things and they can go to somewhere safe? So just at the bottom there, just to underline, it’s really about, we’re really about trying to connect that community voice to the national level piece, to the other agencies that are working on early warning and really be that bridge to the community. And just a last slide, given the name of the forum, just a few platforms that we’re working on. The IFRC Global Crisis Data Bank, this is one we’ve been working very closely with UNDR on, and it goes back about 100 years, I believe, not quite to Pompeii, but it goes back about 100 years. It’s got about a half a million events in the data bank, more hazardous events. It’s got about 100,000 disasters that hit, and it’s really a source of information to better understand the impact of certain events and then use that information to. you know, better predict those events and prepare for future events. We’ve got an alert hub, which is an aggregator service. We collect alerts from all over the world and make those alerts available for rebroadcasting by different agencies, Google being one of the agencies that’s a key ally in rebroadcasting alerts and getting information out to people. We’ve got a digital repository of messages. That’s a WhatNow platform there. I put up an example from the Caribbean and they’ve formatted a number of messages for social media distribution. So they’re using social media to really get the word out when a hazard approaches about what people can do. And then just the final small example, we have a mobile application very much focused on first aid, but now we’re pushing information out to people specifically on heat. So when there’s a heat wave, we can push information out about what people can do to avoid the heat basically and protect themselves. So a lot of partners down at the bottom. Looks like I missed you on DRR there. So apologies for that. There’s a lot more partners that aren’t listed, but just kind of a smattering of the partners we’ve been working with. So without partnership has been said before, we couldn’t do any of this. So we’re really very big on partnerships and seeing how we can work together to make this initiative a success. So thank you.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you very much Nathan. The success of course is based on the efficiency of the cooperation or the cooperation would be properly done or the results would be shared. In this sense, we have in the room also EBU as was announced before by Amelie. That is the European Broadcasting Union. That is a sister union for Europe of what Nadim represent for Asia Pacific. What are you doing in this field?

Panelist 1:
Yes. Thank you. Hi everyone. Nadim has explained very well the existing rule, which is, I think, confirmed already of the broadcasting in times of crisis. There are real examples. Now, in the process of the EW4All, we have joined formally the Pillar 3 as representing the World Broadcasting Unions that gathers all the broadcasting unions, including ABU, EBU, ASBU for the Arab State, AUB for Africa, and ABA for North America and for South America, i.e. IBS, AIR, and CBU for the Caribbean. So, as representatives of the WBU, we joined the Pillar 3 with proposals on three axes. The first axe is similar as the assessment task of Pillar 3, but for the broadcasting-based early warning systems, because there are real examples of broadcasting-based early warning systems. Ahmed mentioned NHK, which is really quite well advanced on this. In Europe, we have Switzerland, which is an example that we mention quite often, and I have informed Pillar 3 colleagues about this, where both the technology and the workflow, which is the very important part that Ahmed mentioned, are put together. It’s not about just setting up or implementing a system with coverage or whatever. It’s about how to make sure that the source of the alert is linked to the format of this and the priority of taking this on air in which format. So, all this has examples. It’s not the only example. Recently, I also sent a recent report in April on radio in times of crisis made by the EBU, which is mentioned here, which mentioned more examples and gives really more details about the role of broadcasting in this. The second axis, so the first is the assessment of the situation. The second axis is how to improve the situation in the areas where the broadcasters are not yet well somehow advanced in terms of responding to this need in times of crisis. The advantage of the WBU is that it gathers all the broadcasters, so through the different broadcasting unions, we can reach all our members, which should cover possibly, if we count the terrestrial and the satellite coverage, possibly 100% of the population, if theoretically it could be that. And here, the multiplicity of the channels is key. You mentioned, Emily, the four out of five people having a smartphone. This percentage varies between the countries. It could be 50% in some countries, it could be 95% in other countries. It was written for sure. So, it is crucial that other channels be also insured for this. The WBU has already supported and recommended the common alerting protocols to all its members, to be used by all its members in whatever workflow for disaster, let’s say warning or early warning. And the public service broadcasters, because when we talk about the broadcasting unions, we are talking about public service broadcasters, they are the most trusted sources of information. So the trust dimension is already there. The third axis of our action is more for medium, long term, about coordinating with other stakeholders in order to have a more resilient and more sustainable multi-channel and multi-layer system that could reach everyone, right? Because we can focus on, for example, the cell broadcast alone, which needs to be, of course, generalized as much as possible. We can focus on the broadcasting also that should include the early warning. But what about having a sort of merged or converged system that uses all these channels together?

Amelie Grangéat:
This is the outcome too, right? Because the purpose of a public warning system is to ensure coherency in all the alerts that are disseminated through the different channels. So it must be done through a single platform, which is called a public warning system. So that’s really important because this public warning system should also include inside the standard operating procedure of all the alerting authority. For instance, a mayor has the right to send an alert, but only on his territory. A firefighter can send an alert, but only about fire. So all those restrictions must be embedded within a single platform. platform which is called the public warning system and this public warning system should be connected to all the broadcaster possible so definitely there it’s already in the plan and it’s um and if you look at the the supports uh that we can provide to countries the bidding document is for specifying this one the first step is to assess the different standard operating procedure but also the legislation otherwise well we can plug everything technically but if there’s no legislative support and framework we don’t have the right to push so we need to start and be coherent with that and also to take into account the the needs of the user the alerting authority per se as a function of their training as a function of their responsibility so everything should be connected within what we call public warning system but after that it’s true that everything you said is really important that we need to connect to broadcasters and so i know that there’s this slide about connectivity and smartphones it’s important to highlight the importance of smartphone the slide before wasn’t the importance of multi-channel so it’s important to not forget but um so the the topic of the cell broadcast is that really it it has these advantages but it has huge advantages as well and so if we had to pick one one channel it would be this one even if we understand that not everyone will be covered by cell broadcast however not everyone will be in front of the tv not everyone will be listening to radio and so on and so forth and so i i agree also with what has been said before with uh by uh adam uh nadim sorry on uh the fact that in some countries it needs to go to the chief and only the chief is is is trusted and that’s that’s exactly the role of iofc to tell us per country what is channel and to adapt to that. So it’s everything you said is really pertinent. I think it’s linked to our strategy. Indeed, it should be embedded within the public warning system. This public warning system much match the need of the country. And that leads to role of IFCIC to define that. So it’s one of the steps to define the preferable and the trustable channels. And by channels, it’s also how to reach the chief of community who will really set the final order. So I think we are all very much coherent here in our approach. But I’m really glad to see all the work you do in embedding all the broadcasters within the cap and to really promote this multichannel. I think it’s very valuable. So I’d like to thank you.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you. Question. Yeah, please.

Audience:
Thank you so much for this presentation. First of all, I would like to present myself. My name is Hazem. I’m from the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN and international organizations in Geneva. I will be brief because I had a lot of comments, a lot of notes, but I know the time is ticking. So I just want to speak about two points. First of all, just to give a brief overview about Lebanon’s experience in disaster risk management. Actually, we have a national disaster risk management unit which is related directly to the prime minister and which reports also to the UNDRR annually, I guess. And on board, we exchange experiences and beneficiations with all. stakeholders, if we can say, or institutions and international partners. Of course, one of the most important part is IFRC, ICRC, the meteorological institutions in Lebanon, as Nadim said, also the army and the security forces, etc. One of them also is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, because this unit doesn’t only cover Lebanon, but also because we have a huge number of diaspora abroad, so whatever happens in whatever place, a disaster, risk or threat, let’s say, if you all remember what happened in Haiti years ago, so we had a mission, a special mission in order to follow up the Lebanese, if we don’t have embassy or consulate. So just to be brief, this is about Lebanon’s experience, we’re facing a lot of problems, challenges now, economically and politically, etc. So we need to be on board with all the international partners, and we rely on their support, not only financially, I mean also capacity building and other pillars. But I only want to finish, I only want to highlight that everybody mentioned some of them, the importance of investment, maybe, in technological infrastructure, and this I guess the ITU can be the main, let me say, the main pillar for Lebanon. for such initiative, going hand by hand with capacity building to the national teams, and at the same time, the partnership with multi-stakeholders. And here, I can refer also to the PPP, I know, which is a different domain, but we can manage or we can have some insights with the public and the private partnerships, because nowadays, everything is interrelated, interconnected between companies, even individuals, and international society. So just I praise the work you are doing. I really commend it. And hopefully, we will be on the same page for the early warning and for disaster risk management. Thank you so much.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you. But by memory, Lebanon is not doing priority countries, so they have already an early warning system in place. I think that’s something.

Nathan Cooper:
I know that the Lebanese Red Cross is working with the government very closely in one of the big river basins on an early warning system.

Audience:
Yeah, yeah. But I’m not sure if technological-wise, we’ll have reached. So I don’t have much information about it, because I’m not a specialist. But I guess ITU can have access to those.

Amelie Grangéat:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can give it to Shafty. I think his question was more how to develop the technological services there that could help to develop more channels in this way, and especially through funding opportunities. And that’s part of the interview.

Audience:
Yeah, maybe I didn’t explain it well. It’s not about only funding, but maybe the support,

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
like technical assistance, guidance. Exactly. Guidance and channeling and early warning for all is all about that.

Amelie Grangéat:
Exactly, that makes sense in a way.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Okay, because we have four minutes left, can I ask one minute for each finalist, a recommendation about how to improve cooperation? Should we start in Ruben’s order? Nathan?

Nathan Cooper:
Yeah, I think one of the recommendations for the initiative is we have to be patient. I mean, we’re trying to connect the entire world in five years and it’s going to take a bit longer than that. Because you’ve got to, cooperation requires time, it requires building relationships, you know, and so I just say let’s keep working hard on it and keep moving forward, but let’s be patient and not beat ourselves up when it takes a little bit longer than expected to get these systems up and running.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Are you telling Gutierrez that 27 is too long?

Nathan Cooper:
He’s going to have me push it back.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you. Nadeem?

Ahmed Nadeem:
Thank you. It’s wonderful to hear comments from all of you. Very much agree to every single comment that you have made. Just from my point of view, working together is key. Finally, just to say that consider media to be a friend of yours, because we are very active in every part of the disaster chain, not only in early warning, education, information, after post-disaster coverage information also. So use media as an ally wherever possible. We are very happy to collaborate. I think working together is the key to achieve what we’re trying to achieve here.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you. Amelie?

Amelie Grangéat:
On my side, I would say no late sharing, because especially in Europe, there’s a lot of early warning system already in place. also in the US and Canada or in a lot of different countries. So they have been experiencing some difficulties to set it up. So let’s not fail into the same trap again and build based on their experiences as well. While we turn over to the need of the specific country, of course, so the idea is not to have the same approach for every country, but let’s not fall into the same trap that people have already avoided. So knowledge sharing.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Lessons learned to share. Fanny?

Fanny Langella:
Maybe I’ll say a word about trust because we know that very often having the information doesn’t always lead to action. And so in all that we do, we shouldn’t forget about the need to build trust with the target audiences. And that happens also by communicating about risk outside of the times of disasters.

Dr. Giacomo Mazzone:
Thank you very much. So thank you, everybody, for being with us. Thank you for the people online. There are no questions online. OK. I think that the key messages are on the same page. And I hope that this will be what you will do from tomorrow morning. Thank you.