[by Lorna Victoria | 3rd WCDRR Sendai | 15 March 2015 | Day 1]

Similar to our advocacy messages, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon stressed the inter-connectedness of the Post-2015 frameworks -DRR with CC and the SDGs. Meanwhile, the Japanese Minister made a pleasant gift to the world by pledging US$4 billion for DRR for soft mitigation activities, resilient infrastructure and capacity building, committing as well to assist in the training of a 40,000 core of volunteers in DRR.

In the working session that I attended on Early Warning Systems, getting the warning information to the last mile, to the community was highlighted, using available science and technology within a multi-hazard approach. The need for warning to be accurate and most of all understandable by the people was emphasized. Reflecting on this, CSOs can interface with the scientific community and national/local governments in "laymanizing" early warning information, but the first step is to include the community in the design of the early warning systems.