Setting-up an hydrometeorological early warning service in Niger: lessons learnt on the co-development approach

During the last 20 years, floods have become a major hazard in West Africa, particularly in theSahelian belt, affecting livelihoods, infrastructure and production systems, and hence heavilyimpacting on sustainable development. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction2015-2030 recognized Climate Services (CS) as a powerful tool for more effective disasterpreparedness. The European research and innovation Roadmap for CS expands their contribution,particularly "hydrometeorological services", to the Sendai Framework. From this convergence,Hydrometeorological Early Warning Systems (EWS) become a strategic target and a building blockof preparedness to hydrometeorological risks in developed and developing countries. In West Africa,EWS for floods are in place only for the main rivers and are conceived mainly top-down and hazardcentered, lacking links with exposed communities and expected impacts. These gaps reduce theeffectiveness of a flood EWS, while engaging local communities since de beginning through a coproductionprocess can improve the effectiveness and ensure better response in case of alert.Our study aims to present the lessons learnt from the set-up of a Community and Impact BasedFlood EWS on the Sirba River in Niger. The service was developed with stakeholders at differentlevels, leveraging on existing resources and knowledge, using simple but effective approaches andintegrating state-of-the-art hydro-meteorological science in a decisional scheme of Sahelian ruralareas. This mechanism can be replicable in different contexts characterized by knowledge andstructural deficits, by creating a better capacity to exchange data and information and by directlyconnecting available technical capabilities with the local level. The participatory approach allowedthe beneficiaries to define the rules of the system, which, in any case, needed to be consistent withthe national legislation and internationally recognized best practices.The study suggests that it is not necessary to develop complex forecasting tools, while it can bepreferable to enhance those already operating and calibrate them on the local scale through riskthresholds, field observations and potential impacts using flood scenarios. The strength of simplicityalso lies in not having to spread complex messages, but simply the reference risk scenario, andfinally its color-code (according to the international standards of ISO 22324:2015), which alreadyembeds all other information including potential impacts. The simple and integrated approachillustrated in this case study, bridging the gap between top-down and bottom-up approaches, caninspire Governments, local administrations and development partners to invest in the improvementof existing tools and knowledge and in strengthening cooperation, collaboration and coordination toreduce hazards' impacts and sustain the development of rural and urban areas.