CIIFEN designated as Regional Climate Centre: Opening more climate information services for western South America

At the request of the Meteorological Services of western South America, the International Research Centre on El Niño (Centro Internacional para la Investigación del Fenómeno de El Niño, CIIFEN) was designated as Regional Climate Centre in a pilot phase (RCC) for the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). This designation will allow it to expand its scope of action towards providing climate data and information as a service for National Meteorological Services within the assigned region.

This designation presents new opportunities to improve and expand the regional information products and services offered, which will contribute to the labours of the National Meteorological Services from Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Peru, in the development of sectors such as disaster risk reduction, agriculture and water management, among others. At the same time, this will strengthen the regional working platform for horizontal cooperation among the national entities within the region and homologous institutions that have collaborated with their efforts, such as the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands (KNMI), as well as cooperation and institutional support agencies including the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

Although for the topics in question, the RCC is already a referent for decision-making at the regional level, especially within the context of the increase and intensification of extreme meteorological phenomena, the new role will empower the capabilities of participating countries and others with limited resources for the availability of climate information; for example, the application of climate indices related with freezes or droughts to estimate agricultural sector risks for Andean countries.

It was reported that the Regional Climate Centre for western South America will be publishing its Webpage at the end of this month, with tools and other operational resources, which will include tools for disaster risk analysis and a wiki for climate information use by technicians for decision-making. CRID will announce this on its Web portals as soon as it becomes available.

For further information, please contact Rodney Martínez, a staff scientist at CIIFEN (r.martinez@ciifen-int.org)

Cinchona Video: Evidence that sustainable recovery and human development is possible after a disaster

For a period of 18 months (starting in June 2010), the United Nations Development Programme in Costa Rica (UNDP) promoted the project, “From recovery to sustainable human development: Beyond the 2009 Cinchona earthquake”. The project was implemented in collaboration with the National Risk Prevention and Emergency Response Commission (CNE) and in coordination with the municipalities at the affected zone. The main goal of the project was to strengthen local institutional capacity and that of the community organisations within the framework of the recovery effort after the January 8th, 2009 earthquake in the northern part of the Central Valley of Costa Rica, which caused human and material losses and destruction of infrastructure and means of livelihood in this zone.

Among the components developed by the project has been risk management with a gender focus, which strengthened municipal and community emergency committees with training activities and equipping with EWS for flooding-prone zones.

A summary of results achieved, with testimonials by those who lived through the disaster, and benefitted from the initiatives that were promoted for socio-economic recovery, is provided by the video "Results and Impacts of Project Cinchona", available at the web address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3cJB36H5OI

Emergency Medical Technicians in Costa Rica train for handling massive emergencies

Within the framework of the training programme for Emergency Medical Technicians at the University of Costa Rica, last June 4th and 5th, a course was given on Handling Massive Emergencies. The main objective of this training programme was to provide the participants with knowledge and experiences that would increase their capacity for operational management at the site of an emergency when this type of situation occurs.

The course dealt with topics such as national planning for emergency and disaster response, command and control, operational management at the site of the emergency and of the events, triage, rescue in collapsed structures and behaviour of the affected parties in massive emergencies. The course was given by Yehiel Kwpershtein, a specialist on these topics responsible for doctrinal development, professional literature, guiding principles and professional techniques for civil protection, disaster mitigation and search and rescue in Israel.

This activity contributed experience, training techniques and lessons learned that can be analysed with a nod to strengthening the operational capacity of first responders and the Costa Rican emergency system in general, and generates possibilities for carrying out future training activities on related topics and the national and regional level.

For further information, please contact Maurenth Alfaro (maurenth@yahoo.es).

Discussion forum: "Criteria for decision-making indicators in Disaster Risk Reduction"

Within the DIPECHO 2011-2012 Framework for Action, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Foundation for Coordination of Disaster Prevention Resources (FUNDACRID) are developing a set of four criteria for prioritising actions for disaster risk reduction, including: 1-Current Risk, 2-Risk Drivers, 3-Response preparedness, 4-Enabling norms.

Given the importance that these criteria have for decision makers at the level of national authorities and international cooperation, under a participatory process of consultation with the risk management players, these organizations have proposed this forum to discuss these criteria. You can follow the advancing discussions in the forums section of the virtual platform for knowledge exchange, DesAprender (www.desaprender.org).

Bulletin on Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation in the Americas Special Edition: Safe Hospitals

The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) has dedicated the most recent edition of its Bulletin, Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation in the Americas to the topic, Safe Hospitals. It includes articles with examples from Latin America on activities for prevention, recovery and safety measures for hospitals and health centres in the face of disasters. This topic also inaugurates a new design for the printed Bulletin and improvements in the digital version.

Access the Bulletin here.

NEWS BRIEFS

Deadline is extended for the competition on “Students on Alert for Tsunamis” in Colombia, Chile and Peru
At the request of the countries participating in the sub-regional competition "Students on Alert for Tsunamis", UNESCO extended the deadline until the end of June for reception of the educational projects in Chile, Colombia and Peru. More…

UNISDR promotes "Resilient Cities" at Río + 20
An event that will bring together high level speakers including mayors, governors, parliamentarians, private sector representatives and other players from the urban scene, who will share important lessons learned and pragmatic strategies that would guarantee an effective application of risk reduction measures. More…

Business continuation for firms in the face of disasters: Regional priority
Just a few days from the launch of the UN’s Global Campaign "Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready!", in Peru, the city of Lima will receive international experts from the public and private sectors, academe and international agencies, within the framework of the Regional Seminar "Public-Private Sector Alliances for Disaster Risk Management". More…

Website for the Fourth International Conference on Gender and Disasters
Between May 16th and 18th, the Fourth International Conference on Gender and Disasters was held in Bogotá, Colombia, under the auspices of USAID/OFDA. As a part of this initiative, they developed a specialised webpage www.conferenciageneroydesastres.org

1st Photographic and Journalistic Exposition organised by GRIDES: "Crónica de Fotos Anunciadas sobre Gestión de Riesgos" (A Chronicle of Announced Photos on Risk Management)
Inaugural event with photographs that capture losses from devastating events such as earthquakes, glacial melt, rains. More…

New publication: "Riesgos de desastre y desarrollo" (Disaster Risks and Development)
This book provides novel information on disaster risks in different countries but with emphasis on the Peruvian case. More…

Newsletters
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CEPREDENAC Information Bulletin (Spanish)
OFDA/USAID Bulletin (Spanish - English)

NEW PUBLICATIONS AT CRID

You can have access to a collection of more than 19.000 information resources on risk management through the CRID website. To consult other publications of interest for you, visit our web .

Progress and Challenges in Urban Climate Adaptation Planning: Results of a Global Survey. (2012)
JoAnn Carmin; Nikhil Nadkarni; Christopher Rhie

Riesgos de desastres y desarrollo. (2012)
Pedro Ferradas

Plan institucional de emergencias para centros educativos: Preparémonos para manejar mejor las emergencias y desastres. (2012)
Ministerio de Educación de Ecuador; Secretaría Nacional de Gestión de Riesgos (SNGR)

Terremotos: Preparados para actuar. (2012)
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID)

Disaster risk reduction a global advocacy guide. (2012)
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Disaster Risk Reduction: Spending where it should count. (2012)
Jan Kellett; Dan Sparks

Plan de evacuación Hotel Ríos Tropicales. (2011)
Guatemala. Coordinadora Nacional para la Reducción del Desastres (CONRED); Associazione Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI)

INVITATIONS, COURSES AND EVENTS JUNE-JULY 2012

Logística de Gestión de Cadenas de Abastecimientos en Emergencias
Date: June 18-21
Place: Dominican Republic
Organizer: Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA). Centro Operaciones de Emergencia, República Dominicana
Contact: oficina.rdominicana@redhum.org

Rio plus 20 Disaster Risk Reduction Side Events
Check here the parallel events information about DRR organized by UN agencies and other international organizations.
Date: June 13-22.
Place: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Contact: side_events@uncsd2012.org