In March 2022, UN Secretary General António Guterres announced that every person on the planet is to be covered by an early warning system in the next five years, via the initiative ‘Early Warnings For All’. Warnings were already highlighted by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Target G to “Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030”. As coverage of warnings expands, including for those who are marginalised or require adapted or specific warning messages, inclusivity is core.
This report is a policy and guidance note, providing specific examples, key lessons, and actionable recommendations for inclusive warnings. The audience is those seeking to influence governments and other implementers with evidence-based approaches to inclusive warnings. The evidence shows that taking practical approaches to inclusion in warnings has better outcomes and reaches more groups than one-size-fits-all.
Overarching takeaways for inclusive warnings are:
1. Give everyone a voice to act for warnings: Finance continual engagement processes for people and organisations to identify and fulfil their own warning needs without excluding or inhibiting others.
2. Work together by overcoming silos and territorialism: Collaborate with and be directed by people and organisations applying warnings to build trust and credibility for integrating long-term warning processes into everyone’s daily lives and governance practices.
3. Learn from each other: Establish good practices, entry points, and comparable data while recognising limitations in safe data collection, replicability, transferability, and scaling.
