Peer Learning workshop: New hazardous events, and losses and damages tracking system

Over the last 30 years, UNDRR and UNDP, in partnership with different organisations, have supported over 110 countries in institutionalizing disaster information management systems (www.DesInventar.net) with National Disaster Management Offices (NDMOs). While the system has been widely used, there is a growing need to modernize it to meet the growing data needs and interoperability.  

Meanwhile, WMO Members have approved a methodology for “Cataloguing of Hazardous Weather, Climate, Water and Space Weather Events” (CHE) to be implemented with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and regional climate centres. The CHE model will provide records of hazardous events which can be linked with related observed disaster impacts.  

Recognizing the need for an upgraded, comprehensive, and interoperable system, UNDRR, UNDP and WMO, hence, are collaborating to develop a new generation tracking system for hazardous events and disaster losses and damages (DTS). The new system will enhance country capacities to better understand disaster data value chains, support data governance, enable actionable information, and facilitate knowledge brokerage for positive change. 

As of October 2023, a milestone was reached in the development of the new DTS with the finalization of the prototype phase that was earlier validated at a stakeholder and expert workshop. This phase involved co-design sessions with users to validate user needs and requirements. It culminated in a system design document intended to inform the system development phase.  

While the approach and technology options for development are bound by UN Secretariat norms and standards, the solution to be implemented needs to be flexible to progressively integrate services and modules that respond to emerging needs. To fulfil commitments to open-source and support country uptake while ensuring cost-efficiencies, UNDRR has decided to advance system development in-house. By enhancing the internal technical capacities of the organization for a home-grown solution, we strengthen opportunities for more iterative development with greater elasticity to receive feedback and respond to emerging needs. 

Futureproofing the DTS also implies leaving sufficient room to incorporate the results of ongoing development on methodological and technical aspects, such as the advancement of accounting methodologies for environmental losses assessment, the development of a new disaster-related statistics framework, or the adaptation of post-disaster needs assessments to slow-onset events. 

All the steps taken so far have led us to a good understanding of the current system gaps, as well as the country's needs and the expectations of specialized users. The prototype phase and the system design document provide high-level guidance for contracting a minimum viable product development. Further, the solutions and approaches for system development merit a peer technical review to ensure that the final solution choices benefit from the lessons learned and good practices from those working on comparable, yet different, systems and initiatives that offer transferable lessons. 

Hence, the peer learning workshop aims to:  

The expected output of the workshop is a set of concrete peer-reviewed and validated recommendations packaged on a more detailed roadmap for the iterative development of the DTS. UNDRR may consider using this peer review group on a continual or occasional basis for consultation purposes or as part of a guiding coalition.