DRDM and partners update data platform |06 February 2015

The Division of Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM) and its partners attended a one-day refresher workshop this week to update the Desinventar, which is an online data platform accessible to all and allows everybody to record emergencies.
 
The partners involved were CAMS, National Meteorolgical Services, Seychelles Police, Seychelles People’s Defence Forces and the Seychelles Coast Guard, Ministry of Land Use and Habitat-GIS, ED-GIS, Seychelles Land Transport, Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency, the Seychelles Planning Authority, EIA, Ministry of Health, National Bureau of Statistics, Public Utilities Corporation, Red Cross Society of Seychelles, Environment Impact Assessment, Climate Adaptation Management, Environment Department for geological surveys.

Under the CAT-DDO (Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option) policy loan, the division and its partners are obliged to update the Desinventar at least once a year but ideally updates it as much and as often as possible. This is aimed at improving the overall reporting of emergencies. The Development Policy Loan with a CAT DDO is a contingent credit line that provides immediate liquidity to member countries in the aftermath of a natural disaster. It is part of a broad spectrum of risk financing instruments available from the World Bank Group to help borrowers plan efficient responses to natural disasters.

The workshop was conducted by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) represented by its head of programme Julio Serje with technical assistance from Philippe Boulle, technical advisor to the Indian Ocean Commission ISLANDS financial protection programme and Leslie de la Morinière, also from UNISDR.

The first requirement for successfully reducing risk of catastrophic events is to develop an accurate empirical knowledge of the pattern and structure of past disasters. The first activity of the joint UNISDR/ISLANDS programme was consequently to develop the capability of the countries of the region to systematically account for disaster losses.

This was achieved by training local staff to use the Desinventar methodologies to better capture and interpret data. A ‘toolbox’ consisting of these methodologies was created, enabling a reliable baseline for data on economic losses to be drawn up. The new methodologies take into account both past data and the new, interrelated complex factors that until then had not been integrated into risk assessment.

Disaster cards were established to collect historical data over the last thirty years in each participating country. Small events, usually neglected in such activities, were also recorded as they can cumulatively add up to material loss figures.