19 Jul 2022

Activation of EAP for Heatwaves in southern Kyrgyzstan: 2,100 households to be protected from extreme heat

The Early Action Protocol (EAP) for Heatwaves of the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent was triggered on 17 July 2022, based on an official bulletin from Kyrgyzhydromet, the national meteorological office. A seven-day forecast (18-24 July 2022) had indicated that temperatures in Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken provinces in southern Kyrgyzstan would exceed critical thresholds for three or more consecutive days, starting from 22 July.

Upon declaring that the pre-agreed critical thresholds had been reached, the IFRC released 207,707 Swiss francs (just over 200,000 euros) from its Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) to the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent to immediately launch a heat wave awareness-raising campaign and provide life-saving advice to the general public, such as communication materials with information and recommendations on protection measures for heat waves.

Other early actions included:

  • installing 12 air conditioners in three orphanages and boarding schools for children with disabilities, and three in care homes for elderly people (two units in each)
  • providing food and hygiene packs so that people at risk could stay at home and avoid the heat
  • First Aid training on symptoms and treatments for heat exhaustion, sunstroke and fainting.

These early actions were all conducted within the agreed lead time of four days before the heatwave (18-21 July). In total, 2,100 households were reached through the actions in the three southern provinces; this covered approximately 10,500 people, including vulnerable groups such as orphans, children with disabilities, elderly people and poor families. A total of 145 staff and volunteers from the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent were involved in carrying out the early actions.

    This effective implementation of the agreed early actions was built upon months of preparation. Since the EAP was approved in September 2021, the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent has worked hard to be ready ahead of the hot summer months, for example monitoring the forecasts for peak temperatures with support from Kyrgyzhydromet.

    Forecast-based financing (FbF) establishes mechanisms to automatically allocate funding for early actions once forecasts indicate a high probability of an extreme weather event. The goal is to anticipate disasters in order to prevent and/or reduce their humanitarian impacts. A key element of FbF is that the allocation of financial resources is agreed in advance, along with the specific forecast threshold that will trigger the release of those resources for the implementation of pre-defined early actions. The roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in implementing these actions are defined in an EAP.

    The EAP for Heatwaves in Kyrgyzstan was finalized in 2021 as part of a FbF project implemented by the Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent, with support from the German Red Cross, the IFRC, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and local authorities, and funding from the Deutsche Bank Stiftung. Currently, the project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. This is the first EAP to be activated in Central Asia. The activation is funded by the IFRC’s DREF.

    You can download a summary of the EAP for Heatwaves in Kyrgyzstan here (PDF).

    This article was updated on 2 August 2022 with further details of the early actions carried out.

    To find out more about FbF in Kyrgysztan please visit the Anticipation Hub:

    Forecast-based Financing (FbF) in Kyrgyzstan

    In January 2019 the Red Crescent Society of Kyrgyzstan (RCSK) with technical support of the German Red Cross (GRC) and close cooperation with the national hydrometeorological agency (Kyrgyzgydromet) …

    Learn more