The State of Early Warning Systems - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 120

In addition, the HFA reports further highlight gaps in coverage within the national
borders. Moreover, less than half of the countries reported multi-hazard EWS. The
HFA also provides clues to the main impediments that exist in EWS development
that need to be tackled in order to fi ll existing gaps. For example, the most fre-
quently reported impediment to EWS development is lack of funding, followed by
inadequate coordination between local, national, and regional actors, lack of human
resources and of EWS infrastructure. In addition, several countries also reported a
lack of understanding about risks (Zommers 2012 ). Addressing these impediments
would contribute to making the world a safer place.
As the impacts of climate change or variability are felt more prominently espe-
cially in some areas of the world, there is the need to better use existing resources
and systems that already collect and provide key information on climate-related
hazards to build a climate change EWS. Moreover, fi lling existing gaps of current
EWS, such as improving prediction capabilities for droughts and hydro-
meteorological hazards and developing a desertifi cation EWS, would contribute to
an improved preparedness for climate change.
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