Ron Jackson, Head of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery for Building Resilience Team at the United Nations Development Programme, brings a wealth of experience to his role at UNDP. He was the former Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and before that, Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in Jamaica. Now, he leads a team at the forefront of UNDP's work on integrating development and disaster risk-reduction and mainstreaming risk-informed approaches into UNDP's work. That includes work on early warning and early action, which UNDP has been a strong supporter of. Today, Ron tells us about the approach UNDP takes to acting earlier and the resources that the organisation has developed to support governments and other stakeholders in building their own capacities for early warning and early action. Ron's interview is full of useful links, so make sure to click on them to learn more.
1. Tell us about how the Preparedness Toolkit came about, and why it is so important.
UNDP views preparedness and anticipation as a transformative process which strengthens the capacity of people, communities, institutions, and countries to prevent, anticipate, respond to, and recover from crises.
For UNDP, applying foresight to embed anticipation in policy and development programming is a priority.
When complemented with hindsight, through lessons learned, and insight, drawing on data and analysis, institutions and communities gain a fuller picture of potential risks. This allows for more informed policy- and decision-making.
Against this background, we have developed the UNDP Preparedness Toolkit and accompanying Preparedness Learning Pathway to support countries to strengthen their ability to prepare for and anticipate crises. These guides also aim to improve the speed and efficiency of our programmatic solutions, while applying foresight to inform longer-term development work.
With this support we equip national and local authorities, UNDP Country Offices and other interested partners with guidance, resources, and good practice examples to improve the design of and resource mobilization for initiatives related to preparedness and anticipation.
The Toolkit encourages the use of innovative solutions – including technological and digital tools – to implement inclusive preparedness and anticipation initiatives.
We invite REAP partners to share these tools widely and continue partnering with UNDP in deploying scalable and practical solutions that support early warning, early action and preparedness.
2. What other early warning/early action initiatives are you working on?
As a leading development actor, UNDP is committed to addressing the root causes of vulnerability so no one is left behind.
We support countries to enhance their risk governance systems and strengthen early warning and early action efforts to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from hazards and threats.
UNDP’s services along the early warning early action value chain become even more critical as climate-related hazards intensify or become more frequent. People, assets and livelihoods are exposed to new and different challenges.
For UNDP, investing in early warning, preparedness and anticipation means establishing effective multi-hazard monitoring and alert systems based on community needs. It also means fostering community awareness, as well as creating effective partnerships to ensure that governments and communities can both prepare for and take necessary action when warnings are issued.
Climate information and multi-hazard early warning systems play a crucial role, as they enable people and organizations to take meaningful and early action in anticipation of crises. This saves lives and livelihoods, brings economic benefits, and allows countries and institutions to continue their pathways towards resilient and sustainable development.
Since 2008, UNDP has channelled investments of over US $700 million in 50 countries benefitting over 13 million people. An additional US $2 billion has been mobilized in co-financing across the early warning/early action value chain, from building and strengthening observation networks, developing risk-related and tailored products, improving communications and information sharing, to building services for and capacities of communities, decision-makers, and businesses to use and understand weather and climate-related information.
Another initiative to note is UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF). The IRFF is delivering innovative protection solutions in 20 countries out of a target of 50 countries by 2025. Through the facility, UNDP supports the development of insurance products and services for vulnerable people and communities, while also investing in the long-term transformation of insurance markets.
3. How has being a REAP Partner helped you scale up your work?
Being a REAP partner underscores UNDP’s commitment to work with all sectors of society to help mobilize the institutions and resources required for a transformative shift towards risk-informed policy, planning, and investment decisions to support resilient development.
UNDP acts as a convener across the development sector, while also bringing Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus actors together to enable multi-disciplinary, integrated, and synergetic approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction that tackle multi-dimensional risks and threats.
UNDP works with partners to scale up value-chain approaches to early warning and climate information services that are multi-stakeholder and integrated.
This includes enhancing observational networks, early warning and forecasting capacities, co-development and dissemination of weather and climate advisories, and participatory approaches for last-mile access and use of climate risk and multi-hazard early warning information to secure lives and livelihoods, especially of the most vulnerable.
UNDP works with REAP partners to design and implement programmatic approaches to people-centred, multi-hazard early warning systems that advance the collective objectives of global initiatives, such as the UN SG’s Early Warnings for All Initiative.
4. What do you see as the next 1-2 priorities to tackle so that we can take early action to scale?
We need to continue promoting resource allocation by governments for early warning, early action, and preparedness activities to ensure that everyone benefits, which is in line with the UN Secretary-General’s Early Warnings for All Initiative. This includes resource mobilization by international development and humanitarian partners to fill funding gaps where they occur.
Secondly, we need to strive for early warning systems to remain people-centred and focused on the most vulnerable and marginalized individuals, groups, and communities so that no one is left behind. Only then will we truly achieve early warnings for all.
Note: To explore the full Preparedness Toolkit please first refer to the Access Guide.