WMO Disaster Risk Reduction Programs - Executive Council

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GENEVA 000599

SIPDIS

STATE PASS TO IO FOR DISSELKOEN AND USAID FOR DCHA
STATE PASS NOAA FOR JHAYES, WBOLHOFFER, DTHOMPSON
ASTANA, BANGKOK, BRUSSELS, BUDAPEST, JOHANNESBURG-OFDA REP
ROME, SAN JOSE, USUN NEW YORK FOR - OFDA REP
US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY - FOR DR. DAVID APPLEGATE

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: EAID UN SENV WMO ECOSOC
SUBJECT: WMO Disaster Risk Reduction Programs - Executive Council
Review


1. Summary. During the recent WMO Executive Council (EC) meeting in
Geneva from June 3-12, members reviewed the progress of WMO Disaster
Risk Reduction (DRR) and Service Delivery (SD) programs. The EC
Working Group for DRR and SD (WG DRR/SD) is chaired by the U.S.
Permanent Representative, Dr. Jack Hayes (Assistant Administrator of
Weather Services for NOAA). The DRR program is gaining momentum
both within the WMO and among Members. Agreement was reached at the
meeting that WMO Member countries, Technical Commissions and
Regional Associations (RA) will work together towards developing
end-to-end multi-hazard early warning systems within each region.
In WMO Regional Association IV, which includes North America,
Central America and the Caribbean, there is a WMO DRR pilot project
to strengthen flood and flash flood warning and response systems in
Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. NOAA and the USAID Office of
Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) will host a visit by Dr. Maryam
Golnarghi, Director of the WMO DRR Program, from July 7-9 in
Washington where she will meet with federal agencies and donor
organizations with the aim of increasing collaboration on DRR. End
Summary.


2. The Disaster Risk Reduction program of the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) addresses Disaster preparedness, mitigation and
response to potential hydro-meteorological hazards. Hurricanes,
tsunamis, severe weather, winter storms, floods and flash floods are
high-impact weather that greatly affects the global community.
According to a recent survey by WMO, sixty percent of the countries
surveyed indicated there was no effective response capability by the
government and when disasters occurred, the best they could
accomplish was to provide relief and aid to victims after the event.
The principle WMO Disaster Risk Reduction program goal is to link
National Hydrological and Meteorological Service (NMHS) forecasts
and warnings to effective emergency response programs to minimize
impact to the population at risk and to mitigate economic losses.
The DRR program along with the Working Group on DRR and SD are
focused on establishing end-to-end multi-hazard early warning
systems for developed and developing countries. End-to-end systems
are complex. For example establishing a true end-to-end system
would involve collecting and sensing data, modeling and analysis,
creation of warning messages and end-user products, dissemination of
warnings and products through appropriate and pre-defined channels
which include disaster management agencies for initiating evacuation
actions to save lives. If any of these components are weak and not
functioning properly then warnings cannot reach the end-user such as
the person in the floodplain or emergency responders, resulting in
humanitarian losses. Different regions and countries experience
different weaknesses in their end-to-end system operations. For
example in the Caribbean and Central America region (WMO Regional
Association IV),a weakness of the end-to-end system is the
disconnect between NMHS's and disaster management agencies. In
South America (RA-III) communications is the principal weakness.

Agenda Highlights
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3. The report of the WG DRR/SD was accepted by the EC. The report
outlined a two-year work plan to build end-to-end multi-hazard early
warning systems, facilitate coordination with partners, build
capacity, and to establish public education programs and pilot
projects. The program will develop a document titled "Role of
NMHS's in Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems". The document will
define best practices based on selected country programs and lessons
learned from pilot projects. This publication will also be used as
a text book in training workshops now being scheduled.


4. Dr. Hayes, WG DRR/SD Chair, reported to the EC that the WG had
developed its work plan for the next two years and that the WG also
would develop a strategic and operating plan for consideration by
the next Congress. One of the major goals of the WG is to transfer
project responsibility and resource mobilization to the RAs and
Members as well as to work more closely with development agencies
because the WMO Secretariat has limited capacity to manage projects
and the ultimate goal is to develop effective end-to-end
multi-hazard warning systems in all countries.


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5. The SD program needs organization & guidance. The WG DRR/SD
requested the Secretariat to develop a framework for a Service
Delivery Policy over the next two-years. This framework will
facilitate the cost-effective development of SD capacity. Through
this framework, NMHS's will receive guidance on interacting with
various user communities to understand their requirement, then
understand how to use this information to achieve effective service
delivery results for a wide range of user needs. This program will
also continue to build successful regional forecast demonstration
projects over the next two-years that expand the number countries
and hazards so as to realize a regional implementation of these
demonstration projects.


6. The WMO pilot project in Central America is funded by the World
Bank and many UN, regional, national and local partners are
committed to this project. A goal of this project is to demonstrate
how an end-to-end multi-hazard early warning system can be
implemented in a region with strong Member leadership, regional
support and can integrate with other cross-cutting activities such
as the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) also being
implemented in RA IV. The RAIV WIGOS demonstration project goal is
to provide mosaic regional radar data to the countries in the
region. This new product will be extremely helpful in composing
warnings by NMHS's and for use by end-users such as disaster
management agencies in preparing to respond to potential high-impact
and/or severe weather.

GRIFFITHS