Early Warning Project Portfolio

What is Project Portfolio?
The Early Warning Project Portfolio (EWPP) is a database of peer reviewed projects that aim to develop effective people-centred early warning systems for natural hazards. The early warning project portfolio captures a range of good projects and innovative ideas. ISDR PPEW aims to support and promote the project proposals and to stimulate donor interest in funding them.

How was it set up?
More than 130 projects were submitted following a call for project proposals for the Third Early Warning Conference (EWC III), which was held in Bonn from 27-29 March 2006. The database has helped to ensure professional handling of the project proposals in terms of storing the proposal documents and managing the review process. The database has several access levels to suit different user requirements in addition to advanced search facilities. Public user have access to summary information on each project only, while each project submitter has full access to their documents and to the reviewers` comments.

How was the review process done?
International experts were selected to review the projects and entered their comments and rankings online. This enabled a transparent review process to support the grading of projects and the selection of projects for presentation at the conference.

What happened at the EWC III?
A number of the high quality projects were showcased at the conference. 14 projects were presented in the plenary and nine projects were presented during the poster session. To ensure that all projects were promoted a Compendium of Early Warning Projects was assembled as part of the preparations for the EWC III. Throughout the conference governments and donors were strongly encouraged to study the project proposals and to work with the submitting organizations to turn them into reality. Prior the EWC III conference organisers took steps to promote the projects with donors, including visits to a number of world capitals. Several positive connections have been made, including the project in Tonga that will be supported by the Munich Re Foundation, as was announced during the conference.

What happens next?
To help turn more projects into reality the ISDR Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning (PPEW) will capitalize on the efforts to date and will continue to maintain the projects database and to promote the projects with donors over the coming year. Donors will need some time evaluate the project database and consider which projects best fit their programmes, objectives, and policies. In this regards we will gladly provide them with more detailed information where required and seek to ensure coordination among donor efforts. We are also happy to provide assistance to individual project submitters to improve their proposals where donors show an interest.

Where to get further information?
If you need any further assistance on using the database or special access to it, please do not hesitate to contact us at: ew-projects@un.org

How to use the database?
To view the complete list of projects, please click "Search". For a more detailed search, you may search by project title, key words, geographic coverage, category, or organisation. By selecting one of your search results you will be able to view a project description including abstract, background information, objectives and expected impact. There is also information on the duration of the project as well as on the project budget. A final grade is also included in the summary which indicates the outcome of the expert review process. In case you would like to get in touch with the project submitter the primary contact is also given including name, telephone, and email address.