With close to 98% of the global population covered by mobile networks and 8 out of 10 people owning mobile phones, network-based dissemination technologies - namely Cell Broadcast and Location-Based SMS - provide the most reliable and effective channels to disseminate life-saving alerts rapidly and at scale.
However, significant barriers to adoption remain:
In a recent IFRC publication, recommendations for co-designing systems that enable last-mile populations were organized around three core principles: inclusivity, accessibility, and actionability. Regarding warning dissemination, this involves two critical steps:
1. Producing clear and inclusive warningsThis means creating instructions that are easy to understand, come from a trusted source, and use the correct local language. AI is playing a transformative role here. AI assistant features now allow alert issuers to describe a situation in plain language and receive an AI-generated draft enriched by historical data. These systems can automatically translate alerts into local dialects and convert them into voice messages, ensuring that the message is accessible to everyone, regardless of literacy or language.
2. Adopting a multichannel approachRedundancy is the key to inclusivity. As public warning experts, we advocate for incorporating last-mile mediums into the national warning ecosystem. By integrating "analog" approaches into a digital, versatile architecture, we can reach people where they are.
While the specific channels vary by country, several under-estimated channels can make all the difference when a crisis hits:
Whether or not a country has Cell Broadcast in place, opt-in alerting systems provide vital complementary benefits. These systems allow citizens to register points of interest, such as their primary or secondary home, their children’s school, or the residence of an elderly relative living elsewhere in the country. This address-based, contact-driven targeting enables a truly people-centric approach. Anyone can register to be alerted when a threat affects a predefined area that matters to them, not just where they are physically located at a given moment. This model respects cultural differences, family structures, and personal communication preferences, while ensuring that the right people receive the right information at the right time. For illiterate populations, these systems can also rely on localized voice calls. An interactive voice response (IVR) system automatically calls subscribers located within the alert area and plays a recorded voice message, as a complement to or an alternative to SMS.
Technology alone is not enough. The ability to communicate with trusted local representatives is critical to reaching populations without access to mobile phones or reliable connectivity. Community brigades and Local Resilience Agents (LRAs) play a key role by sharing real-time observations, validating alert thresholds, and delivering last-mile warnings when infrastructure fails. In Bangladesh, for example, LRAs are volunteer groups with strong relationships within vulnerable communities. They help disseminate warnings by visiting households and advising people on preparedness and response. During floods, LRAs receive early-warning voice messages and flood information through multiple channels, then relay this information directly to communities. Similarly, in Nepal, people access alerts through a range of preferred communication methods. While SMS-based messaging is widely used, door-to-door outreach and community brigades remain essential for ensuring that warnings reach everyone, especially those most at risk.
Credit: Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS)
3. Radio
Radio remains a globally essential "last-mile" medium, especially in regions lacking stable internet infrastructure. As highlighted by radio experts like Rob Hopkins in Canada’s Yukon Territory, radio's ability to broadcast in local languages dramatically boosts effectiveness. From a management standpoint, modern EWS platforms allow even non-technical staff to manage these broadcasts effectively during an emergency.
Credit: Rob Hopkins founded OpenBroadcaster, an open-source broadcast platform that helps rural and Indigenous communities in Yukon
In contexts with limited resources or high-risk geography, IoT-based sirens are life-savers. For example, the Civil Protection of Sicily (DRPC) installed 25 IoT-based sirens across the Aeolian archipelago to monitor active volcanoes. By using the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), these sirens automatically play specific alert sounds and voice announcements in multiple languages the moment a threat is detected. This represents a perfect implementation of end-to-end interoperability, from detection to the ears of the population.
Credit: webgenesys
Depending on the context, other channels must be considered: TV, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), LED signs, digital signage, mobile apps, websites, social media, and even satellite networks.
With Intersec technology, public authorities and disaster management agencies can integrate every available communication channel. By leveraging the latest AI capabilities, they can adopt the most efficient crisis communication strategy possible: the right message, to the right people, in the right language, through the right channels. This isn't just a technical achievement; it is a commitment to ensuring that in the face of a disaster, no one is left behind because of the device they carry, or the one they don’t.
Photo credit: Climate Resilience Action