Consultant for the Production of Personal Stories from the Early Warning System (EWS) 1294 Project

People In Need (PIN) has been working in Cambodia since 2008 providing development and emergency assistance in both rural and urban areas, with a focus on Disaster Management (DM) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). The DM team introduced the first early warning system (EWS), named EWS1294, to Cambodia in 2013, in collaboration with the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM). Since its early development, innovation has been key to the systems success, utilising Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology to ensure accessibility to vulnerable populations across the Kingdom; accompanied by continuous promotional activities through outreach activities in the field. Additionally, EWS1294 contains an innovative monitoring component, through the production and installation of river gauges. These GSM-enabled devices use sonar sensors to record water surface levels at carefully selected locations and share the data to an online server, providing important real-time hydrological information to local disaster management authorities to support evidence-based decision making. PIN has worked closely with both NCDM and PCDM (provincial level) to ensure a collaborative approach with the national government, including capacity building, fundamental in the sustainability of the system.

EWS1294 now provides full national coverage, operated by the provincial government when they wish to disseminate an alert to the population, and the system is linked to NCDM’s website who recognise the system as the national EWS for Cambodia. PIN Cambodia’s DM team continue to find innovative ways of developing the system, most recently through the implementation of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), an international standardisation for the dissemination of early warning messages. This approach was the first step in moving the system towards multi-channel dissemination and has been quickly followed by the creation of the EWS1294 Facebook page; accumulating 110,000 followers within 5 months.