Dear Fellow Disaster Risk Management Practitioners and Researchers
This is a greetng from Chris Piper, as I have recently joined the discussion
group, having been introduced to it by John Twigg.
Just to briefly introduce myself, and throw my hat into the ring by sharing
the things I could possibly contribute.
I now live Down Under, but was originally raised in the UK. Initially a
geographer and teacher, I have now spent most of my working life in the aid
field - first working for Save the Children Fund (UK), and various World
Vision entities. I have worked in Bangladesh, Somalia, Cambodia, Europe and
Australia, and travelled extensively on short missions in addition to that.
For the past 12 years I have run my overseas aid consultancy TorqAid, where
I focus in on disaster risk management; project management; training; and
human resource management. I teach part-time at Deakin University - on
their distance education graduate program in International & Community
Development (ICD) - see www.deakin.edu.au, and also hold a Period Offer with
AusAID (basically a back-up consultant) on the humanitarian side, as well as
being a Member of the Australian Institute for Emergency Services (MAIES).
In the mid 1990's I prepared two Municipal Emergency Management Plans
(MEMPs) for local governments in Australia, and later was involved in an
AusAID-funded disaster managemnent training program at district level in
Madhya Pradesh, India. In am currently involved in a World Vision Australia
(WVA) evaluation of an AusAId-funded community-based disaster preparedness
program in the Solomon Islands, PNG and Vanuatu.
On the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) I now focus on the following:
- I teach this as part of one of the units for the ICD program - the unit
being AID 724 (Humanitarian Emergencies & Disaster Relief)
- I also teach the TorqAid DRM (Disaster Risk Management) workshop, which
looks at global best practice in developing Disaster Risk Management Plans
(DRMPs). I have taught this in Madagascar (in French/English), S.Africa (3
times) and have workshops coming up as follows:
8-10 Sept : In UK (hosted by World Vision)
12-14 Oct : Kabul, Afghanistan
7-10 Dec : Torquay, Australia
1-4 Feb : White River, S.africa
People taking the DRM, plus follow-up assignments, can claim advanced
standing from the Deakin ICD program, as well as Swinburne Univ's Grad
Dipl/Cert in Disaster Management.
If anyone is interested in seeking out further info, please contact me on
[log in to unmask]
Cheers
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Esteban Leon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 12:01 AM
Subject: Re: "Collection of tools for vulnerability assessment"
Thank you very much Charles Kelly!
I would like to take this opportunity to inform all of you that we had some
software problems and most of the tools that had already been posted on the
web were removed. We have now taken all the necessary actions for avoiding
this from happening again and I would like to request and encourage those
who had already submitted their tools to kindly resubmit. I am very sorry
for the inconvenience and loss of time this has caused.
However, given the enormous importance of this work, I hope this will not
discourage you from going into the web and doing it all over again so that
we can continue collecting useful material; tools and practices to have it
available for further research and for preventing more unnecessary
fatalities.
The website is: http://hq.unhabitat.org/rdmu/isdr/default.asp
It is in the UN-HABITAT website (www.unhabitat.org), under Programmes/Risk
and Disaster Management Unit (RDMU) section page and you will see a link on
your left entitled "Disaster Vulnerability Assessment Tools (IATF WG3)".
Click on that and you should get the WG3 site. For more information please
see e-mails below.
Thanks in advance,
Esteban
_____________________________________________________
Esteban León
Disaster Management Specialist
Disaster, Post-conflict and Safety Section
United Nations Human Settlement Programmes (UN-HABITAT)
P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254-2) 624191 Fax:(254-2) 624263/623685
Charles Kelly
<[log in to unmask]> To:
[log in to unmask]
Sent by: Natural hazards and cc:
disasters Subject: Re:
"Collection of tools for vulnerability
<NATURAL-HAZARDS-DISASTERS@JISC assessment"
MAIL.AC.UK>
24/06/04 01:17 AM
Please respond to Natural
hazards and disasters
You might be interested in the REA (Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment
in Disasters)project. While the REA tool is designed to be used during
disasters, it may have some use as a scenario analysis tool in disaster
planning exercises or, if appropriately adapted, as a community
preparedness tool.
More details can be found at: http://www.benfieldhrc.org/SiteRoot/disa
ster_studies/rea/rea_index.htm.
Feel free to get back to me if you have any questions or need additional
information.
C. Kelly
Benfield Hazard Research Centre
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Esteban Leon
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "Collection of tools for vulnerability assessment"
Dear Sirs/Madams,
On behalf of the Secretariat for the United Nations-International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), UN-HABITAT are resepectfully requesting your
assistance in collecting functional tools you are willing to share, that
assist local communities, as well as municipal and national governments, in
reducing the impacts of disasters.
Some background...:
The ISDR Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction has established a
number of working groups to follow up on the initiatives developed during
the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).
Working Group three (WG3) of the ISDR-IATF, has as it's main objective "to
advance knowledge on the development and application of data and tools for
risk/vulnerability assessment and reduction." Its members consist of over
twenty representatives of UN Agencies, international NGOs and related
regional and national bodies world-wide. The work of the working group
focuses on understanding the needs for effective risk management,
particularly from the local and national level, on small and medium-scale
disasters and on the socio-economic impact and environmental risks and
associated impacts of disasters.
WG3 agreed to focus its work on three main activities:
The exchange of information on on-going activities for data gathering
and for the development of indicators and indexes for global risk
assessment;
The review of selected practices on the application of
risk-vulnerability-assessment tools at the local level;
The harmonisation 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 in collaboration with UNDP has taken the lead in the development
of a programme of activities for a "Register" of tools and practices for
risk-vulnerability-assessment at national, sub-national and local level.
This will produce the following results:
A "compendium" of tools and practices for risk-vulnerability-assessment
at national, sub-national and local level.
Annotated comments, which accompany the register assisting the user with
identifying appropriate tools by describing their purpose, the
situations they have been applied in, and the decision-making processes
they can support.
An enhanced accessibility for local decision-makers and "users" to
available tools.
An "on line" feedback mechanism for users and decision-makers to comment
directly to the tool owner/operator and the registry about constraints
and contexts that their tool must reflect.
A "Network and referral facility" of practitioners and institutions
active in the area of risk assessment.
The main objective is to promote the application of improved practices for
risk-vulnerability-assessment at the local, sub-national and national
level.
UN-HABITAT, in collaboration with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre
(ADPC) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) has begun the
execution of activities in order to reach this objective.
How you can assist:
A web-site for this collection of tools has been created:
http://hq.unhabitat.org/rdmu/isdr/default.asp
(It is in the UN-HABITAT website (www.unhabitat.org), under Programmes/Risk
and Disaster Management Unit (RDMU) section page and you will see a link on
your left entitled "Disaster Vulnerability Assessment Tools (IATF WG3)".
Click on that and you should get the WG3 site.)
The website is interactive, and there are instructions for both finding
tools, and adding them, as well as a web-dialogue function for commentary.
All material gathered will be appropriately credited to the
institution/expert of origin, and will be made available to others. In case
you do not have any material but you know other institutions or experts
that might be interested in contributing, please feel free to forward this
note.
We look forward to your co-operation in this endeavour and to our future
collaboration in activities of common interest.
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
Tel: (254-2) 624191
Fax: (254-2) 624263/623685
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