Editorial
Best Practices for Conducting Needs Assessments

Assessments are an important first step to determining immediate humanitarian needs. How governments manage these assessments and coordinate with other agencies that are conducting their own evaluations have an impact on the end result as well as the level and quality of humanitarian assistance received. (More)

When A Volcano Cries Wolf
The challenge of maintaining a state of alert

The Galeras volcano in Nariño is considered one of the most active in Colombia. Since June of 2004, Galeras has registered four small eruptions (the last being 12 June 2006). In the proximity of the volcano, there are seven villages – including Pasto, Nariño, and la Florida – which must be preventively evacuated every time the volcano shows signs of an imminent eruption. (More)

Disaster Health Library Packs Information into New Version

The Health Library for Disasters (HELID) is an interagency initiative, under the coordination of WHO and PAHO, to make disaster information accessible quickly and free of charge worldwide. Available on CD-ROM or over the Internet, the HELID contains more than 650 full-text documents, with more than 40,000 scanned pages of text and more than 12,000 images. (More)

PAHO/WHO Collectively Aims to Reduce Disaster Risk

Reducing the health impact of disasters is too big a job for any one technical program alone. The collaboration and technical expertise of the entire Organization is key and an approach to risk management and vulnerability reduction must be incorporated into the Organization’s traditional development activities. To move in this direction, PAHO/WHO is carrying out a series of workshops for its senior managers regionwide to mainstream risk reduction into its ongoing technical cooperation programs in the health sector and to strengthen the corporate response capacity to better assist countries affected by emergencies and disasters. (More)

A Gender Focus in Emergency Interventions: when field tools can become barriers

Over the last two decades, disaster mortality statistics have highlighted the need for a gender-based approach that addresses vulnerabilities and strengths of the affected population. Responding to this need, international organizations, NGOs and development agencies have progressively incorporated checklists and recommendations into emergency response actions. (More)

What the Tsunami Taught Us about Needs Assessment

Many remember the vivid images of the devastation resulting from the 2004 South Asia tsunami. The tsunami was a natural disaster of immense proportions - affecting 14 countries, internally displacing 1.7 million people, and killing an estimated 225,000 people. Shortlyafter the tsunami, a group of humanitarian agencies gathered to assess the lessons learned from the international humanitarian response and produced a series of thematic evaluations to consolidate sector learning. (More)

BVI College Offers Safer Building Courses

The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College in the British Virgin Islands is offering courses on Safer Building and Construction, which lead to certification. The courses are designed to reduce vulnerability to the effects of natural hazards by strengthening safe building practices. (More)

FLACSO offers Platform for Distance Learning on Disasters

The Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, FLACSO, the Federation of the Red Cross and PAHO/WHO developed a stand-alone distance learning module entitled Policies on Health and Disasters. This module forms part of FLACSO’s diploma course of studies on health policies. Created in conjunction with regional development experts, the course module covers a wide variety of issues. (More)

Legislation and Norms Showcase National Commitment to Disaster Reduction

National legislation and norms on all aspects of disasters are important indicators of a country’s commitment to vulnerability and risk reduction. Although a great deal of work has been done, often this accumulated knowledge remains in just the country itself. In order to share this work with neighboring countries and to allow disaster managers to have access to this body of information, regulations and norms from a wide variety of Latin American and Caribbean countries have been collected on a new CD-ROM. (More)

Caribbean Studies the Management of Mass Fatalities

At a workshop on management of mass fatalities after natural disasters, 44 participants from the English-speaking Caribbean islands were familiarized with the current knowledge about mass fatality management and contingency planning. The workshop had a special focus on the management of human remains of foreign nationals and tourists. (More)

A Handbook for Gender Equality in Humanitarian Action

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee, created by the United Nations for a more effective response to disasters, is working on this handbook that brings practical guidance on identifying and addressing the differing needs and situations of men, women, boys, and girls during humanitarian crises. Each of these groups has different needs, faces different threats, and has different skills. (More)

Tsunami and Disaster Management: Law and Governance

The School of Law of the City University of Hong Kong organized the International Conference on Disaster Management: Challenges for Governance Reforms in Asia in March, 2005, a few months after the tsunami in South-East Asia. Several attendants and presenters at this meeting got together to prepare this publication. (More)

New Book Chronicles: Disasters in El Salvador

In October of 2005 Hurricane Stan and the Ilamatepec volcano caused devastation in large areas of El Salvador. Both events demonstrated the geographic, climatologic and social vulnerability of the country, including basic health infrastructure, which is so important when disasters of high magnitude strike. (More)

CRID

The Regional Disaster Information Center (CRID)’s mission is to promote the development of a culture of prevention in Latin American and Caribbean countries through the compilation and dissemination of disaster-related information and the promotion of cooperative efforts to improve risk management in the Region. (More)