Global Task Team

The  Early warning systems (EWS) are designed to save lives and reduce the social, economic, and environmental impacts of extreme weather.  Despite advances in EWS implementation, there continues to be loss of lives and livelihoods due to extreme weather exacerbated by a changing climate. This calls for urgent and continuous improvement of EWS to improve its effectiveness. The focus of the Global Task Team is on identifying implementation gaps, particularly in the design, architecture, and sustainability of such systems, informed by a range of multi-actor users.  The Task Team will review similarities, differences, and challenges in large-scale guidelines, manuals, and toolkits that have been developed over time to enhance EWS implementation. The review is focused on key themes including inclusivity, governance, partnerships, success metrics and evaluation, co-development and engagement practices, sustainability and capacity enhancement. We are particularly interested in understanding the recurring themes in EWS implementation documents,  as well as aspects that are less regularly discussed and could point to areas requiring concerted effort in the future. Thematic and gap analysis and a deep dive into seminal texts will inform a synthesis (infographic and briefing note) describing the current state of EWS implementation practices. The Global Task Team will work closely with the Local Task Team to identify recommendations and testable strategies that could enhance EWS implementation within a future pilot study.