06/02/2018
The bedrock of an effective Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience program and initiative is the information management imperative in the continuum of disaster risk reduction and resilience, from Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, Recovery and rehabilitation.
Operationalizing information management in Disaster Risk Reduction involves:
Institutionalizing Disaster Information Management Governance. This involves all stakeholders-partners from Government, Private Sector and Civil Society responsible of managing data over its lifecycle, those that create and deliver trusted information and to those that share value adding knowledge as basis of all Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Actions and Initiatives. This presents an opportunity for building a culture of coordination, collaboration and innovation among information management stakeholders-partners in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience.
In the Philippines, an Information Management Technical Working Group within the National Disaster Risk reduction and Management Council has been established to be the venue for all stakeholders to discuss all matters pertaining to DRRM and CCA Information Management.
Empowering Information Management stakeholders-partners to ensure their respective datasets are authoritative, available, of quality and accessible to those that need them. This is very critical when lives are at stake and time is of the essence.
Gleaning on the lessons of previous disasters in our region, it is but necessary to build, maintain and provide access to Common and Fundamental Operational Datasets (COD, FOD) to all stakeholders involved not only in response, but also for the other thematic areas of disaster risk reduction and resilience.
Harnessing appropriate and reliable information and communication technologies and processes that facilitate interoperability of a wide range of information systems and technology platforms. Innovations in space technologies, social computing and the cloud provides an opportunity to DIM stakeholders to optimize the creation, management, governance and delivery trusted information and knowledge.
Examples of these were demonstrated in the expert sessions and may be adapted to different theaters of DRR planning and operation
Sustaining trust and collaboration among Information Management stakeholders from National and Sub National levels to the Global and Regional Levels encourages openness, unbridled access to knowledge, information and data.
The exchanges of ideas in the expert consultation meetings on disaster information management highlights the experiences of different countries in addressing their respective DRR needs. Specific natural hazards such as dust and sand storms spans geographic limits that may require sub regional to regional collaboration in reducing transboundary disaster risk.
Anent to the points previously raised, this forum together with the adjunct sessions of the committee on disaster risk reduction of UNESCAP provides an opportunity to learn from the experiences of different IM stakeholders to deal with specific hazards and provide information of underlying risks for effective disaster risk reduction and resilience building.
This representation firmly believes that applying the points mentioned adds value to the existing regional and global coordination mechanisms and at the same time encourage all national stakeholders to innovate their respective information management systems consistent with regional and global frameworks that contribute to our common aspirations of leaving no one behind and a safer, adaptive and disaster resilient communities towards sustainable development
*Response of Director Felino O. Castro V to the 5th Plenary Session of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction of the UNESCAP, 11 October 2017, UN conference center, Bangkok, Thailand
