CREWS 6th Steering Committee Meeting

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CREWS 6th Steering Committee Meeting

18/06/2018 - 11:30

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18/06/2018 - 11:30

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The 6th Steering Committee of the CREWS (Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems) Initiative met in Geneva on June 14th, under the presidency of Mrs Brigitte Collet, French Ambassador for climate change negotiations, renewable energies, and the prevention of climate risk. The initiative aims at significantly increasing Multi Hazard Early Warning Systems capacities, saving lives and livelihoods in poor and vulnerable countries. .

This initiative, evoked for the first time at Sendai (Japan) during the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (Spring 2015), was inaugurated at the COP 21 (December 2015) by a group of countries (Germany, Australia, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands) accompanied by Canada, together with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), and the World Bank.

The CREWS Initiative aims at significantly increasing Multi Hazard Early Warnings for poor and vulnerable countries at high risk to climate extreme events. For that purpose, the initiative has for objective to mobilize 100 million dollars to help the financing of cooperation programs. Today, 7 projects are in progress in 19 countries.

The Steering Committee examined the progress of the current projects in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Niger, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific. The Steering Committee approved the launch of new projects in Western Africa and the Caribbean region. The Caribbean Lessons Learnt from 2017 Hurricane Season report was examined and a particular attention was given to the difference in access for women and men in regard to warnings.

The Steering Committee also decided to increase the geographic coverage of CREWS by preparing new projects in Africa and Asia. France renewed its financial contribution to the CREWS Initiative in May 2018. Australia and Luxembourg announced new contributions or pre-payments, whereas Mexico and Switzerland indicated their wish to join the Initiative as contributing members.

“CREWS est une initiative concrete qui produit des effets reels sur le terrain, au plus près des communautés” (CREWS is a concrete initiative which produces real impacts on the ground, as closely as possible to communities) concluded Brigitte Collet. She also called for an increase in the CREWS Initiative financing and the enlargement of the contributing members.

The representatives of CREWS’ partners, the donor and beneficiary countries met at the Residence de France for the end of the Steering Committee and the launch of the CREWS first annual report, published in French and English versions.