The participants agreed that success of early warning depends on interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral collaboration of all parties concerned. An ideal early warning system starting from detection, followed by warning with appropriate response strategies still remains a future goal. The need to analyse risks through an understanding of vulnerability of communities for different disaster scenarios, so that effective responses can be taken was agreed as the future direction for making most out of the early warning capabilities. Considering the preceding discussion of the deliberations which took place at the conference, the participants have drawn the following conclusions which must be seen in a larger context than this meeting. They can only achieve their true value by being translated into concrete actions.
Early warning represents a cornerstone of disaster reduction.
Effective early warning depends upon a multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration among all concerned actors, as demonstrated during the Potsdam Early Warning Conference. While early warning capabilities must continue to be strengthened at the global level, it is important that greater emphasis be given to developing capacities that are relevant, and responsive to, the needs of local communities. Before the conclusion of the decade specific successor arrangements for the continued promotion of disaster reduction should be made in order to ensure, inter alia, the continuing integration and evolution of early warning at the local, national, regional, and global levels of responsibility.