Mrs Patience Gbeze, a senior journalist, has called for stronger collaboration between Disaster management bodies and Media practitioners, to provide a conduit for effective early warning communication and response.
She noted that both disaster management stakeholders as well as journalists have a fundamental duty to protect the public; thereby creating a collaborative platform for transmitting disaster information to reduce the impact of disaster.
?Disaster information must be delivered accurately and more quickly to the public. Effective media information can save lives during disasters, by increasing the quality of decisions made by the public.
?Media therefore provides an important and effective warning channel both to the public and the disaster management bodies,? she added.
Mrs Gbeze made the call at the CLIM-WARN Second National Workshop organised by the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana, Legon and sponsored by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in Koforidua.
Speaking on ?Early Warning Communication and Response ? The Role of the Media,? Mrs Gbeze said during disasters the public expects the media to provide clear, concise, accurate and straight to the point information.
?The Media, victims and the public at large, need constant information about what to do during and after a disaster,? Mrs Gbeze stated.
She also advocated for constant in-service training and capacity building for media practitioners, to broaden their horizon, to improve early warning as well as disaster communication on the field.
?When all stakeholders, including journalists, are better informed about their profession, and when they develop stronger interpersonal relationships, the quality and timeliness of information delivered to the public also improves,? she said.
Mr Jan Anton Van Zante from UNEP, Kenya Office, giving an overview on early warning communication, response and best practices, identified 13 best practices that could be grouped into three main categories.
These categories, he said, include the recipient (the end users), design and the process used.
He noted that two competing factors of technology and population density could affect the choice of best practice to adopt, and as early warning should induce early action, response plans must also focus on safety responses or resilience.
Mr Zante said early warning communication and response must create multi hazard way system, tailored to meet the local needs of the people.
He said available data also show that selecting a type of warning system, depends on impacts type (direct and indirect), time, capacity (ie. infrastructure, facilities, geology) and people involved (who and where) and combination of these factors must be addressed, when adopting a best practice from elsewhere in the world.
?Though some continents were under-represented in the systematic literature review because of language barriers in published works, notwithstanding, it gave an overview of existing practices across the world, he added.
Mr Mushfig Havilov, also from UNEP Kenya Office, gave a presentation on the preliminary results of field works undertaken in Ghana.
He said gaps identified prior to the field works, such as ineffectiveness of existing warning systems, the ability of end users to access warnings and understand them, needed to be filled.
The data shows that there are considerable variations among communities, institutions, and countries, in terms of their needs and preferred ways of receiving early warning messages.
?Generally in Ghana, most preferred ways of receiving information is through radio, mobile phones and Television but communities expressed concerns in receiving information earlier as it could improve their preparedness,? he said.
The two-day workshop was on the general theme: ?Improving efficiency in delivering of climate data to users, ? and aimed at identifying general guidelines, best practices that could be translated or adapted elsewhere in the world, to make delivery of early warning more effective.
The CLIM-WARN project aimed at carrying out case studies to gather fundamental information needed for designing improved early warning systems, and then work with stakeholders to design such a system.
That would be achieved through identifying users of early warning; developing prototype plans for uptake of warnings; improving efficiency of delivery of climate data to users, and designing a comprehensive CLIM-WARN system.
Participants were drawn from the academia, National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Ghana Meteorological Authority, Town and Country Planning, Ghana Statistical Service, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Small ?Scale Farmers Association, Water Research Institute and Assembly men from selected electoral areas.
