The attached message may be of interest - please reply to Esteban Leon and
not to me.




Dear Sirs,

The  ISDR  Inter-Agency  Task  Force  on Disaster Reduction has established
three  working  groups to follow up on the initiatives developed during the
International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).

   WG1: The Nino and la Nina, Climate Change and variability
   WG2: Early Warning
   WG3: Quantification of risks, vulnerability and impact of disasters

WG3  developed  a  work  plan  and  operation  modalities  to  execute  its
activities. WG3 agreed to focus its work on three main areas:

   The exchange of information on on-going activities for data gathering
   and for the development of indicators and indexes for global risk and
   vulnerability assessment;
   Review of practices on the application of risk-vulnerability-impact
   assessment tools at the local level,
   The harmonization of criteria for the development of a
   risk-vulnerability index compatible with other indexes currently applied
   on the social and economic development context.

UN-HABITAT,  through  its  Disaster,  Post-conflict  and Safety Section, in
collaboration  with  UNDP  has  taken  the  lead  in  the  development of a
programme  of activities for the "Review of practices on the application of
risk-vulnerability-impact assessment tools at the local level".

The main outputs of this activity will be:

   A "Register" of tools and practices for risk-vulnerability-impact
   assessment at the national and local levels. The register will be
   continuously updated and expanded.
   A "Review" of the design and application of tools and practices for
   risks-vulnerability-impact assessment,
   A set of "Criteria-Guidelines for the development of best practice" on
   the design and application of risk-vulnerability-impact assessment tools
   and reduction plans.
   A "Network and referral facility" of practitioners and institutions
   active on the subject.

UN-HABITAT  has begun the execution of activities related the production of
the first output: "the register" of tools and practices.

Our  task  is  to  gather information on existing tools, or those currently
under development in the following categories:

   Tools/methods/systems for risk-vulnerability-impact assessment
   Training manuals/material on risk-vulnerability-impact assessment
   Discussion and review material on methods and tools for
   risk-vulnerability-impact assessment.
   Case studies and other material assessing the application of tools and
   methodologies
   Conceptual work on risk-vulnerability-impact assessment methods and
   tools.

All   material   gathered   will   be   appropriately   credited   to   the
institution/expert  of origin and this information communicated accordingly
to ISDR.

We would be grateful if you could assist us in obtaining reference material
on  the  above categories, produced or available to your institution; or to
simply  let  us  know  if  you  would rather not..   Conversely, if you are
interesting  is  accessing this database once developed, please also let us
know  by  return  email.   Finally,  it would also be of assistance to this
exercise if you could advise us on other institutions or experts that might
be approached and interested in contributing.

As part of this effort, we are establishing contact with organizations and
experts involved in the production, application or assessment of such tools
with this request.

The list of experts, institutions or organisations who have so far
contributed materials, with our thanks, are as follows:
|----------------------------------------------|
|Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre            |
|----------------------------------------------|
|CEPREDENAC                                    |
|----------------------------------------------|
|Christine Wamsler                             |
|----------------------------------------------|
|GTZ ? FEMID                                   |
|----------------------------------------------|
|Jaqueline Flentge                             |
|----------------------------------------------|
|Juan Carlos Villagran                         |
|----------------------------------------------|
|NOAA Coastal Service Center                   |
|----------------------------------------------|
|OPS-OMS                                       |
|----------------------------------------------|
|Re-insurance Group MunichRe                   |
|----------------------------------------------|
|Universite de Geneve                          |
|----------------------------------------------|
|University of Colorado                        |
|----------------------------------------------|
|World Bank                                    |
|----------------------------------------------|
|World Institute for Disaster Risk Management  |
|----------------------------------------------|
|World Meteorological Organisation             |
|----------------------------------------------|



We hope that you will also joint us in the development of the global roster
of practitioners on the subject that will be developed by ISDR.

We  look  forward  to your co-operation in this endeavour and to our future
collaboration in activities of common interest.

Please contact UN-HABITAT directly through the addresses provided below.

Best regards,

Esteban León
Disaster, Post-conflict and Safety Section
Urban Development Branch - Global Division
United Nations Human Settlement Programmes (UN-HABITAT)
P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya
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Tel: (254-2) 624191