Training begins for the CEEAC-ECCAS Situation Room in Cameroon

The training course has started at the CEEAC-ECCAS and CACP-AC Situation Room in Douala, aimed at providing the skills for using early warning tools, integrating local data with regional and continental information, and producing early warning bulletins.

The training at the Situation Room of the REC CEEAC-ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States), established in Douala, Cameroon, with funding from the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative (CREWS), at the REC CAPC-AC climate center, kicks off today. The room is an integral part of the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System and Early Action - AMHEWAS network.

Launched in 2019, with contributions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and with the technical and scientific support of CIMA Research Foundation, the institutional and operational framework AMHEWAS aims to establish a network of rooms across the African continent that contribute to forecasting, monitoring, managing, and communicating the risk of phenomena such as floods and droughts. In other words, it aims to build an Early Warning system that allows timely actions (Early Action) to protect the population. In this way, the AMHEWAS network also contributes to the EW4All Initiative, which aims to ensure that all people worldwide are protected from risks through warning systems by 2027.

Several regional, continental, and national Situation Rooms have already been inaugurated in different African states - the latest in Tanzania in June - and now the CEEAC-ECCAS Room in Douala is ready to start its activities. The training course for the staff of the DRR Unit of CEEAC-ECCAS, its CAPC-AC climate center, and the REC member states, which will enable local autonomy and combines theoretical and practical sessions, is accompanied by a technical handover with institutional representatives.

The start of the training and the official handover event for the Room in Cameroon is just the latest step in an international collaboration process that pursues a goal as ambitious as it is crucial: to make Africa, one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change, more resilient and safer. The Situation Rooms constitute a network of science and cooperation where each node (each Room) brings us a little closer to the goal - a goal that is not confined to Africa, as our planet is one where every element is closely interconnected. Addressing risks in one region of the world contributes to global resilience.