PREFACE

The SADC Regional Early Warning System (SADC/REWS) operates as an integrated

activity, comprising a 

Regional Early Warning Unit

 (REWU), based in Harare, and

autonomous 

National Early Warning Units

 (NEWUs) in each of the 14 SADC member

States.  Activities of the National Early Warning Units are coordinated by the REWU,

which acts as the Secretariat of the REWS.

The main 

objective

 of the SADC Regional Early Warning System is to provide user groups

of early warning/food security information, particularly SADC member States and the

international community, with 

advance information on food security prospects in the

region

 through assessments of expected food production, food supplies and requirements.

The REWU thus is aimed at providing SADC, the member States and other user groups

with early warning and food security information on:

food crop performance;

crop failures and subsequent shortfalls expected in food availability; and

food stocks and projections of food needs.

The REWU compiles food security data for the SADC region, based on submissions from

the NEWUs via fax and e mail, and aggregates these for subsequent publication in a

Quarterly Food Security Bulletin

, supplemented by 

Monthly Food Security Updates

.

Similarly, the NEWUs themselves prepare national food security bulletins.  Ad hoc reports

are submitted directly to decision makers, as required.

The Famine Early Warning System Project (FEWS) is an USAID funded project managed

by the Associates in Rural Development (ARD, Inc.). FEWS is associated with SADC's

Food Security Technical and Administrative Unit (FSTAU) primarily through its

collaboration with the Regional Early Warning Unit (REWU) and the Regional Remote

Sensing Project (RRSP), and to a lesser degree other FSATU projects.  FEWS works with

both the REWU and the national early warning units in most SADC member countries.

This price manual was an agreed upon product that was requested by the Regional Early

Warning Unit to assist them in their support of the National Early Warning Units in SADC

member States.  Other manuals that are near completion include:  Thematic Mapping: A

Practical Guide for Early Warning  and  Vulnerability Analysis for SADC Countries: A

Suggested Approach for Early Warning Units .

The author would like to thank all people who provided useful comments in the completion

of this practical manual.

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