14 September 2025, Nadi, Fiji – Improving the coordination of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems work in the Pacific was the focus of a two-day meeting held from 9 – 10 April 2025 at the Nalagi Hotel.
The meeting was convened in response to a recommendation that came out of the Seventh meeting of the Pacific Meteorological Council in Vanuatu last year requesting the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), through its Weather Ready Pacific (WRP) Programme, to bring together key regional implementing partners and stakeholders to explore opportunities to strengthen regional coordination of early warnings across the Pacific.
Mr. Salesa Nihmei, Officer in Charge of SPREP’s Climate Science and Information Programme, said, “In recent years, there are a few regional recommendation made by Countries requesting for better coordination and collaboration on the work around Multi-hazard Early Warning System. The meeting provided that opportunity and SPREP through the Weather Ready Programme is indeed very delighted to host and facilitate this dialogue”
Participants included representatives from the Pacific Community (SPC), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO/IOC), International Organization (IOM), the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF) and other key EW4All stakeholders.
A core activity of the meeting was to identify and align the roles of MHEWS implementing agencies with the four pillars of the EW4All framework: disaster risk knowledge, detection and monitoring, preparedness and response, and communication and dissemination.
The discussions also explored how the WRP Programme can be aligned to the United National EW4All initiative, ensuring that efforts are harmonised and responsive to the unique needs of Pacific island countries and territories. This includes the development of a proposed coordination mechanism and concept of operations to guide collaboration efforts across agencies.
The Weather Ready Pacific Programme Manager, Mr. Ofa Fa’anunu, said, “Convening this meeting is not only important for ensuring that a regional mechanism is established where different regional implementing agencies can better coordinate to help deliver end to end, people centered multi-hazard early warning to our Pacific countries and Territories, but it also provide the opportunity to align WRP with EW4ALL and have some meaningful dialogue on how WRP can play its role of being a key vehicle for implementing EW4ALL in the Pacific – a task that was given to us by the 3rd Pacific Meteorological Ministers meeting in 2023 and the Inaugural meeting of the Pacific DRM Ministers in Manila, Philippines in October last year.”
For more information, please contact Mr. Ofa Fa’anunu at ofaf@sprep.org.