International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
To improve the lives
of vulnerable people
by mobilizing
the power of humanity
EWCII – Second Int.l
Conference on Early
Warning
16-18 October 2003
Bonn, Germany
International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Key statistics and main role
 179 National Societies
 295,000 employees
 97million members and volunteers
worldwide, of which 20 million are active.
 215 million people assisted annually
 Role: Humanitarian values, Disaster response, Health
and care in the community, Disaster preparedness
including; early warning systems, training,
response plans and co-ordination
International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Early Warning or Early Awareness
The strength of the Red Cross and Red Crescent: grass-root
organisations with a large network of National Societies based often in
remote areas
BUT
• How to capture information from the grassroot level and ?
• How to share it and match it with global information ?
• Where is the system for global and local information to meet ?
• How to prepare for the information, people, money, resources ?
• Who is preparing for it, at which level at which moment and how ?
• Who and how are decisions made to REACT APPROPRIATELY ?
Various tools / systems and approaches have been and are in
development but still our collective CHALLENGE
International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Communities and Early Warning
Local knowledge and capacities
Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers are among the main local networks in responding to
early warning signs, adapting, finding local solutions through traditional behaviour, when
coping mechanisms are exhausted, national and eventually the global level comes into
play, however most disasters stay at “home” with local solutions.
Integration / collaboration
of sophisticated information systems in Early Warning matched with indigenous knowledge
should be our common VISION, of humanitarians, policy makers, donors and other
stakeholders.
Sustainability
Systems have little value unless they can be sustained by the communities themselves.
Communities, communities, communities