Early Warning Systems in the Southern African Development Community: A Necessity

The purpose was to ascertain whether the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states have functional, people-centered early warning systems as part of their disaster risk management programs. The study adopted a mixed-method approach involving a review of relevant documentation, a self-administered questionnaire, and in-depth face-to-face interviews with senior managers and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) practitioners. Random and convenience sampling methods were used to select five Member States for data collection: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mauritius, and Seychelles. A total of 50 respondents participated in the study. Thematic analysis was employed to capture critical perspectives. The findings show that all Member States have some early warning systems dominated more by meteorological weather agencies. However, very few Member States have attempted to develop an early warning system with all the requisite details for effective disaster risk reduction. There is an immediate need for all Member States to develop not only the framework for but also multi-hazard and people-centered early warning system(s) in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and the Africa Plan of Action.