This document discusses the strategic framework for making community-based early warning systems socio-economically viable. It describes Cordaid's work implementing CBEWS in 14 hazard-prone regions. A CBEWS involves risk knowledge, monitoring and warnings, dissemination, and response capability. The document outlines drivers, barriers, and the objective to develop a strategic framework to address barriers. It provides details of a cross-border CBEWS project in India and Nepal and components of the CBEWS including monitoring, warnings, and communication. The document concludes with recommendations to strengthen the strategic framework.

1. STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIO-
ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF COMMUNITY-BASED
EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
Marc van den Homberg 22 APRIL 2014
CARE ACT SHARE, LIKE CORDAID
ISCRAM Asia, Marc van den Homberg, Bineke Posthumus, 20th of June 2014

2. COMMUNITY MANAGED DISASTER
RISK REDUCTION (CMDRR)
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
PREPAREDNESS AND COMMUNITY-BASED EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
Cordaid works on CMDRR since 2002 in 14 hazard-prone regions
As part of preparedness phase: implementation of Community-based early warning system (CBEWS)
or people-centered early warning system:
Risk
knowledge
Monitoring
and warning
Dissemination
and
communication
Response
capability

3. TOWARDS SOCIO-ECONOMIC VIABILITY
OF CBEWS
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
DRIVERS, BARRIERS AND OBJECTIVE
Drivers
• reduction of the possibility of personal injury, loss of life, damage to
property, environment and loss of livelihood
• positive cost-benefits for high-frequency, low impact disasters (Joint World
Bank/UN report on economics of EWS)
Barriers to implementation and adoption:
• political challenges
• insufficient aggregation of the needs of vulnerable communities
• difficulty in forging multi-stakeholder partnerships
• …
Objective
Develop a strategic framework to tackle these barriers and reach socio-
economic viability of a CBEWS in vulnerable geographic areas

4. CROSS-BORDER COMMUNITY-BASED
EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
BACKGROUND PROJECT REGION AND PARTNERS
The Terai is a vulnerable region between India and Nepal with a Karnali (Nepal) and Ghaghra (India)
river basin, originating in the Nepal Himalayas and flowing southwards causing severe floods in the
monsoon period affecting between 100 and 150 thousand people each year
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG

5. INDIAN SIDE OF THE CROSS-BORDER PROJECT
Phase I: 15 villages 2012-2013
Phase II: 45 villages 2013
Phase III: 95 villages 2014-2016
47,012 beneficiaries reached
Bahraich
Gonda
Gorakhpur
PROJECT AREAS
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG

6. CBEWS: MONITORING AND WARNING
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
RIVER MONITORING AND WARNING MODEL
Upstream river monitoring
(telemetry in Nepal)
Downstream river monitoring
(manual reading)
Lead time calculated by:
• comparison of highest water levels in
upstream Nepal with downstream India
Historical data
Determination of warning level and trend

7. INDIAN RIVER MONITORING 4 X A DAY (6 AM, 10 AM, 2 PM AND 6 PM) BY
GRAM TASK FORCE
Community creates a Gram Task Force per village with four subgroups: :
• Dissemination and coordination
• Search and Rescue and First Aid
• Security
• Shelter and Livelihood
Usually about 16 to 20 members
CBEWS: MONITORING AND WARNING
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG

8. ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
NEPAL: DEPARTMENT OF HYDROLOGY AND METEOROLOGY RIVER WATCH
CBEWS: MONITORING AND WARNING

9. CBEWS: DISSEMINATION AND
COMMUNICATION
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
Increased risk: then
warning decided by
president of Gram
Task Force
Siren, local resources
Flag, Loud speaker
Individual warning by Gram Task
Force member

10. The Ghaghara River flowing
on 10.8 Meter across the
danger level in Chisapani,
Nepal today at 6:00 AM and
the flood water has come to
Warning level 02 in Tikharia
village and also come to on
Warning level 03 in village
Khairigauri. You are all
requested to arrange for 5
days ration, for 2 days dry
food, and essential cloths
and utensils and deployed
your live stock on safe
places.
CBEWS: DISSEMINATION AND
COMMUNICATION
WARNING INFORMATION VIA VOICE SMS
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG

11. IMPACT OF CBEWS
CASE OF WEST RAPTI IN BANKE, NEPAL
1
2
4
7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1998 2004 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
# of Deaths
Community Based Early
Warning System
established in 2008
Highest flood in 2012
Seven times flood in 2013
monsoon
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG

12. STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
THREE INNOVATION PHASES AND SIX METHODOLOGICAL GUIDELINES
DEVELOPED FOR BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID INNOVATIONS

13. COLLABORATION BUILDING AND
COOPERATION
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
DESIGN PHASE
• Started with three NGOs bringing together funding, local network and expertise
• then government/district entities joined (Regional Remote Sensing Centre-Uttar Pradesh, Central
Water Commission)
• IT solution provider (Voicetree Technologies)
• Volunteer groups that were formed for CMDRR were
empowered for CBEWS activities
In phase III:
• Engage with media
• Mobilize other existing volunteer group
• (boy scout’s e.g.)

14. CO-CREATION, ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
AND SOCIAL EMBEDDEDNESS
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
DESIGN PHASE
Social embeddedness and active participation
• One Gram Task Force (GTF) per village
• Several GTFs facilitated by one Village Disaster Management
Committee (VDMC) with junior engineer of the Irrigation
department (chair), Gram Pradhan vice president, village
development officer, NGO member and village secretary.
Co-creation
• Participatory Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis per village:
social, resource, wards vulnerability, seasonal, service and
hazards vulnerability maps
• VDMC facilitates establishment of CBEWS in his Panchayat,
conducts trainings and mock drills before flood and adapts the
village Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP) and DRR Plan.

15. INSTITUTES, POLICIES AND
STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
PILOT PHASE: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR DISASTER
MANAGEMENT AT NATIONAL, STATE AND DISTRICT LEVELS
Ensure compliance with National Disaster Management Authority Act 2005 and Uttar Pradesh Disaster
Management Act, such as one authoritative voice and link to Emergency Operations Center
Lobby and advocate for mobilizing resources and strengthening inclusive institutional mechanisms towards
DDMA, SDMA, NDMA, CWC through:
• Show and tell
• Consultation meeting
• Policy papers
Difficult:
• high rotation
• political risks can outweigh humanitarian
risks >> do cost-benefits analysis?

16. CAPABILITIES AND EVALUATION
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
PILOT PHASE : CAPABILITY APPROACH (AMARTYA SEN)
Individual differences
Freedom to choose/conversion:
• establish local knowledge base (task forces at village and Gram Panchayat level) and technical
infrastructure (critical equipment placed under their control)
• create critical mass of change agents
Capabilities:
• take into account existing coping mechanisms, such as indigenous knowledge
• employ Learning Cycle on building resilient communities
between community practitioners
and experts successful in Philippines
Realised functionings:
• motivation of volunteers can drop
(e.g. in reading out gauges)
• continue capacity building and stimulate
researchers to come with localized models?

17. BUSINESS MODELS AND FINANCING
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
COMMERCIALIZATION PHASE: EARLY WARNING INFORMATION SERVICE
Basic early warning should be a public service, but
vulnerable communities are currently underserved
Quantify direct and indirect tangible benefits
Explore supplementary ways of financing to
reduce costs and increase revenue.
Combine early warning with:
• Enhancing access to market
• Trading platform
• Market prices
• Livelihood related information
• Diseases (crop and cattle)
• Weather
• Disaster resilient livelihood practices

18. SCALING UP
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
COMMERCIALIZATION PHASE
Monitoring and warning:
• Blend locally collected data through community-
managed rain gauges and log books systematically
with national meteorological and hydrological data
• National institutes extend their reach and forecast at
local level and with higher resolution
• Use participatory games?
Communication and dissemination:
• Use advanced technology for blasting more than 200
voice SMS at once
Response capacity:
• Peer-to-peer training: let experienced villages train
unexperienced villages, use video documentaries

19. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
TOWARDS SOCIO-ECONOMICALLY VIABLE CBEWS
The strategic framework with six methodological guidelines and
three innovation phases is very useful to identify key areas for socio-
economic viability.
For the cross-border CBEWS in India and Nepal:
• Strengthen inclusive institutional mechanisms:
• Bring bottom-up NGO activities together with top-down
government activities by multi-level linkages (national, state,
district, panchayat)
• Proper business case: joint funding (government and donor),
joint resourcing, cost pooling
• Blend regular monitoring by communities systematically with
nationally available meteorological and hydrological data to
improve forecasting
• Continuous focus on capability development, engage with
government endorsed volunteer organizations, replicate from
one village to another
• Use serious games and video documentaries

20. THANK YOU!
ISCRAM ASIA 2014 VAN DEN HOMBERG
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CONTACT DETAILS
We are grateful to:
Yeeshu Shukla, MSc (Christian Aid)
dr Bhanu Mall (PVGS)
Dev Datta Bhatta (Practical Action, Nepal),
Munish Kaushik (Cordaid, India)
Marlou Geurts, MA (Cordaid, Netherlands)
Contact details:
mhb@cordaid.nl
marc.vandenhomberg@tno.nl
+31 6 51069884
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcvandenhomberg