Early warning for early action: Toward more behaviorally-informed early warning systems
Organizer: Food for the Hungry
| “EWSs are only as good as the actions they catalyse; action is an essential part of any warning system. If a warning is sounded, and no one takes the action that the warning was intended to trigger, then the warning system failed.” (IFRC, 2012) The movement toward more people-centered EWSs has improved the overall quality of warning information gathered and analyzed along with the timeliness and quality of warning messages. However, as the literature review finds, EWSs have primarily been designed from a technocratic perspective, aimed at informing governments and official stakeholders of when, where, and how to initiate humanitarian relief efforts. While EWSs have indeed gotten more people-centered in the development of the warnings themselves, less progress has been made in understanding how to best elicit early preparation, prevention, and mitigation actions from the exposed and vulnerable populations themselves. In an effort to contribute to the improvement and further development of people-centered early warning systems (PC-EWSs) and approaches, this paper reviews current literature on the role of social-cognitive perspectives, culture, perceptions of risk, and other aspects of individual and social worldviews that influence how we sense, think, and act in relation to early warning information, messages, and preparedness efforts. Furthermore, we build on existing notions of people-centered early warning systems and incorporates social and behavior change theories and experience to propose a new, behaviorally-informed EWS framework. Rather than the orthodox starting point for EWS design and development – hazard data and analysis – this new framework proposes to “flip the script” for EWS design and development, beginning by identifying the desired early actions of exposed and vulnerable populations and the behavioral determinants that influence decisions to take those actions. We then propose that the EW information that is collected is relevant for prompting action and that the EW messages communicate through channels relevant for all vulnerable groups. These messages, having been tailored to behaviors and actions as opposed to the hazard only, address the previously identified behavioral determinants while calling for specific action. |
Speakers:
Mary DeCoster, MPH, MLS, IBCLC, Sr. Director of Social & Behavioral Change Programs
Claire Boswell, Technical Advisor for Social and Behavioral Change
Lauren Woodside de Alegre, Risk & Resilience Manager
Josh Ayers, Sr. Risk & Resilience Advisor
Dr. Supriya Akerkar, Sr. Lecturer and Course Director, Development & Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes University, UK
Ann Jimerson, Social & Behavior Change Specialist