Natural Hazards and Climate Change in Kenya: Minimizing the Impacts on Vulnerable Communities Through Early Warning Systems - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 354

Box 19.2 (continued)

Gender inequality, climatic risks and disasters are inextricably linked as
they limit the attainment of poverty reduction and development goals (Aguilar
et al. 2007 ). The importance of gender issues in climatic risk reduction and
early warning systems has been enhanced in many reports and research
papers (WEDO 2012 ; ILRI 2010 ; ICRW 2008 ; Patt et al. 2005 ). These stud-
ies point out that women and girls must no longer be seen as passive victims
of disasters; on the contrary, their unique skills and expertise must be
refl ected in national policies and actions for DRR and Climate Change
Adaptation (CCA) (Global Assessment Report 2009 ). Though disasters
place an extra burden on women and girls, they also create opportunities for
them as agents of change (UNDP 2012 ).

19.6 Challenges of EWS in Developing Countries

The recent 2003 and 2011 fl oods indicate a strong need to strengthen the monitor-
ing and early warning systems in the country. In general, one of the main prob-
lems of EWS is that communities are usually left out of the process and miss out
on key information for proper community action planning, implementation, and
monitoring and evaluation when the threat of fl ood is imminent. Many factors can
be highlighted to explain this lack of integration and participation of the local
communities to the EWS (Box 19.2), but they are essentially related to the access
and understanding of EW at the local level, and to their application as decision-
making tools.
Most existing constraints are related to the dissemination and interpretation of
the early warnings (EW) especially in remote rural areas. Communication gaps, for
instance, affect the access, understanding, and interpretation of the forecasts. They
essentially include (1) a lack of adequate communication structure, (2) the use of a
complex terminology and non-familiar language when communicating about EWS,
and (3) a lack of education and awareness about climate risks among the public.
First, in the village context, word of mouth can sometimes be the sole source for
information transfer while radio or Internet may not even be accessible. Second,
understanding forecasts can be diffi cult. EWS are based on forecasts and seasonal
predictions that, despite attempts to simplify them, tend to remain coarse and based
on probabilistic terminology (e.g., probability of rain at a “normal,” “below normal,”
or “above normal” level). Moreover, most climate information is often released in
English, a tongue not understood in every community. 1 Third, the lack of

1 Exceptions where warnings are released in local languages can be, nonetheless, found in some
pilot zones and within pilot initiatives such as RANET.