ICIMOD’s Community Based Flood Early Warning System (CB-FEWS) is a shining example of how ICT can help build communities’ capacity to cope with the effects of climate change. This remarkable initiative is being implemented in the two districts of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji of Assam, India in partnership with Aaranyak, India and Sustainable Eco Engineering (SEE), Nepal under ICIMOD’s Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP). The CB-FEWS makes innovative use of ICT through a social process of networking and information exchange. It uses simple and low cost technology, which includes a wireless transmitter and receiver unit, and voice and SMS service via mobile phones.

Neera Shrestha Pradhan from ICIMOD provided background information on the CB-FEWSat the UNFCCC Secretariat’s side event ‘Momentum for Change: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Solutions’. She said the system is people-centered, uses low-cost ICT tools, and is simple enough to be grasped by those at risk. Partha Jyoti Das, who looks after the Water Climate and Hazard Programme atAaranyak, stressed that the level of acceptance of particular technologies varies across communities owing to their diverse cultures and traditions. He shared success stories from Dihiri, India, and said that enhancing ICT tools and scaling up and scaling out CB-FEWS can pave the way forward.

The UNFCCC Momentum for Change initiative is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and operates in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative.