People-Centered Early Warning System: Barriers, Bridges and Windows of Opportunity

Most literature criticizes the usual view of Early Warning System (EWS) as a linear model with a top-down approach whose technological aspects receive more attention than human aspects. It is argued that EWS should be used for risk prevention, promotion of resilience and vulnerability reduction, rather than be triggered only when hazards appears. In the paper we observe barriers and bridges to promote people-centered early warning system in Brazil. First, we point out the socioeconomic, scientific and political barriers involved in this process. Second, we analyze some bridges to reduce them, based on some experiences of networking through an educational project on Disaster Risk Reduction and Early Warning System. Then, we stated some experiences to promote a risk prevention network, involving diverse social actors through empowering principles, such as the ‘youth educates youth’ and ‘one generation learns from another’. In these experiences, we identified some lessons to institutional reflexivity of Brazilian Early Warning and Monitoring Center for Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), São Paulo State University (UNESP) and Ministry of Education. Policymakers need to reduce the gap between federal and local government to find ways to translate words into action, adjusting EWS for multiple audiences and contexts. A heterogeneous blend of knowledge and practice reveals some windows of opportunity to deal with multiple vulnerabilities and uncertaintity.