UNESCO IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Pilot

The Tsunami Ready Recognition Pilot was an international community-based recognition initative developed by IOC-UNESCO.  It aimed to build resilient communities through awareness and preparedness strategies that will protect life, livelihoods and property from tsunamis in different regions. The Pilot was modeled after the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service’s TsunamiReady® Program.  The Pilot began in the Caribbean and was then extended into the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean. 

In 2015, the UNESCO IOC ICG/CARIBE EWS-X) recommended the approval of the Tsunami Ready Recognition guidelines, and this recommendation was approved by the IOC General Assembly. In 2017, the TOWS WG X (February 2017), following its Inter-ICG Task Team on Disaster Management and Preparedness (TT-DMP, 2017), recommended the IOC Assembly to instruct ICGs to consider piloting guidelines with a view toward developing a harmonized consistent global guidelines. 

Altogether between 2017 and 2022, 40 pilot communities were successfully trained in 21 countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Costa Rica, Domincan Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Samoa, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, UK)

In February 2022, the TOWS WG TT-DMP met to discuss the Pilot results, hear  the progress made in developing Tsunami Ready resources, and review the Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme proposal and Tsunami Ready Coalition Terms of Reference.  With satisfaction, it recommended to the TOWS WG to transition from a Pilot to a UNESCO IOC Programme.

In June 2022, the IOC Executive Council, at the recommendation of the TOWS-WG, approved the establishment of the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme.  UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Information Centres in each region (CTIC, IOTIC, ITIC, NEAMTIC) have the role of facilitating and assisting Member States in the implementation of Tsunami Ready in their countries.

Tsunami Ready Recognition Documents