Pacific SIDS Project- Community-based Early Warning System and DRR

To enhance the capacity of Pacific island countries Hydro-Met services to predict extreme and high impact hydro-meteorological events and associated risks to alert exposed populations.

The project focuses on building the capacity of communities to apply the rich information produced by the National Meteorological Services (NMHSs) on an hourly, daily to monthly basis for decision making. Surveys carried out by previous projects showed that while the NMHSs regularly produce several informative and useful products, there is very little uptake and use of these products and information by the communities. This is confirmed by Malsale et al, 2018 that noted that while farmers listen to contemporary forecast provided by the NMHSs, they usually ignore these advice due to lack of understanding and the technical nature of the information provided through radio, and they tend to rely on readily available traditional knowledge on weather and climate and its interaction with the environment around them which they are familiar with.
Activities implemented under this project have been severely affected in 2020 by the COVID-19 travel restrictions, social distancing, and limitations in interacting with community members. In June 2020, WMO approved a revised workplan by SPREP to try and deliver the project with a very limited extension.