ABSTRACT
Early warning systems are designed to alert national governments and the donor community to the potential for complex and acute emergencies (see complex emergencies; famine; natural disasters). Such systems provide detailed information on problems that both require a response, but also require significant resource and/or policy change, and therefore time, to deliver a response. Some of the most common early warning systems seek to predict food shortage. USAID (United States Agency for International Development) has operated a Famine Early Warning System for some time in select countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has similar warning systems in place in Africa. National governments in some developing countries also have their own food shortage early warning systems, one of the most impressive being that of Ethiopia. Other early warning systems provide information about pending natural disasters: drought, flooding, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, etc.
