Building Pacific Resilience through Early Warning Systems: Mohseen Riaz-Ud-Dean

Mohseen learned about the UNITAR 2024 Leave No One Behind: Rapid Response to Climate Crises Through Early Warning Systems Training Programme through a colleague’s social media post. Drawn to the programme’s combination of theory, practical application, and international collaboration, he joined around 200 participants from across the Pacific in the first online phase. 

Funded by the Government and the People of Japan, the programme sought to train individuals and communities in Pacific Island countries so they can disseminate, monitor, and respond to early warning signals for climate-related hazards and extreme-weather events. It ran in two phases from July to November 2024. 

In the first phase, the participants deepened their understanding of early warning systems, collaboration, and timely communication through an online learning platform and live webinars. Mohseen says he appreciated being able to complete the modules at his own pace and found the interactive mix of theory and real-world examples engaging and well-structured. 

Around 30 top learners, including Mohseen, were then invited to continue to the next phase, an in-person workshop in Japan. There, the participants visited disaster management centres, flood control facilities, and universities, engaged in expert-led lectures, and developed action plans for adopting early warning systems in their countries.  

Eager to learn from other countries’ experiences, Mohseen was fascinated by the wide range of topics covered in the programme, such as ocean and coastal risks, disaster impacts on vulnerable groups, and collaboration and communication. The session on disaster waste management, for example, captured his attention, as the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami had shown the urgent need for better ways to handle disaster-related waste. 

In Japan, one thing that stood out for Mohseen was how all the stakeholders – the institutions, communities, government – were committed to early warning systems and to continuously improve existing systems. 

[Japan] relies on the notion of continuous improvement …. What is good today can be made better tomorrow … and even better the next day.

Energized, he took home ideas for how he might adapt Japanese early warning solutions to Pacific contexts and a deeper conviction of the importance of strong partnerships with governments, communities, and others – even retirees, who could bring their experiences and perspectives to the community response.