Purpose: This document is designed to emphasize the importance of early warning and early action in disaster response and disaster risk reduction in order to enhance understanding and provide learnt lessons to staff and volunteers in their effort of disaster response and reduction.

Overview: The document discusses two guiding principles and uses numerous examples to illustrate how reliable information about expected threats was insufficient to avert a disaster, including Cyclone Nargis, Hurricane Katrina, and the food crisis in Niger. At the shortest timescales, that action could be evacuation. On the longest timescales, early action means working closely with local communities to assess and address the root causes of the changing risks they face.

Usage: Learning from experience

Audience: Technical staff, Volunteers