Early Warning and Resilience Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

This webinar will share innovative advances in two projects focusing on early warning, climate change, resilience and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two projects, one in East Africa and the other in Southern Africa, are as follows:

• The Joint Emergency Operation Plan (JEOP) Early Warning System in Ethiopia is primarily an emergency food relief mechanism, and includes weekly field-level data collection on parameters such as wages, food prices (retail and wholesale), livestock mortality, weather, livestock health, crop performance and fast onset hazards (such as desert locust or flooding). The system seeks to predict coming food shortages and other crises, enabling better planning and faster response among humanitarian actors and government partners. The presentation will focus on the crop pricing aspect of the JEOP EWS and demonstrate how information is critical in understanding and preparing for shocks.

Speakers: Bronwen Moore and Alemu Ashenafi - Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) | Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

• Mzansi Amanzi is a satellite-based national water resource status monitoring and reporting capability in South Africa, allowing surface water resources to be assessed remotely on a near real-time basis. This information makes resilience planning easier and more accurate, and allows early warning of coming water shortages and linked changes in crop and livestock conditions. This webinar will focus on the potential use of this technology in the wider SADC region, and its applications in supporting rural livelihoods.

Speakers: Mark Thompson - Professional GISc Practitioner, GeoTerraImage