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New web portal Sistematización de Herramientas de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres: A way to prepare for disasters on the basis of your own experiences
 The initiative to systematise tools for disaster risk management in South America constituted part of the project on “Strengthening Disaster Risk Reduction in South America through promotion of implementation of the priorities for action under the Hyogo Framework for Action at the regional, national and local levels”, which was executed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) during the DIPECHO 2011-2012 Plan of Action for South America, with financial support from the European Commission by means of the Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO).
Within this project, the Regional Centre on Disaster Information for Latin America and the Caribbean (CRID) provided support and coordination with activities related to: 1. Strengthening information management capacities for the Andean Virtual Libraries for Disaster Prevention and Response (BiVaPaD) in Bolivia and Peru; 2. Creation and publication of the web portal on “Information Resources for Preparedness and Response”; 3. Development of a web platform to improve information access, resources and tools for DIPECHO and other partners in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in South America, an activity that formed the framework for the process to systematise the tools.
 Thus, the initiative was aimed at motivating and encouraging the DIPECHO partners to identify some of the tools used or prepared by them within their project frameworks, in order to systematise them in a standard form and disseminate them on a web platform prepared by CRID.
More information on the initiative here.
How was the systematisation process carried out?
One of the first tasks carried out was a review and edition of the Guía Metodológica para la Sistematización de Herramientas para la Gestión de Riesgo, where the lessons learned during the systematisation process carried out by CRID and the DIPECHO Partners during the DIPECHO VI Plan of Action 2009-2010 in Central America were again adopted. Among the results of this experience, the “Collection of Catalogues of Tools and Information Resources in Disaster Preparedness” provides 89 tools that were developed during the last decade in Central America on topics covering Early Warning Systems (EWS), Education, Health and Building Local Response Capabilities. The collection of catalogues is available here.
Interviews with the DIPECHO Partners for South America, other players related with disaster risk reduction and personnel from CRID, the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) and UNISDR were needed to reach commonality on the concept and type of tool, as well as the related documents that would be selected and systematised.
 Participation in the DIPECHO 2011-2012 Regional Workshops for South America offered a space to present the project, the working methodology and the resources necessary to carry out the whole process. At the individual level, there was constant communication with the DIPECHO Partners and technical accompaniment and support were provided throughout the whole process, which favoured both the systematisation process carried out by each Partner as well as the acquisition of the products obtained: 1. Systematisation document; 2. Information resources linked to the tool; and 3. Supplementary informational material.
The stage involving the website design included, among other activities the review, organisation and presentation of the tools and other documents in an agreeable and easily accessible manner for all of the published material.
If you would like to learn more about the guidelines for carrying out the systematisation process, download the working methodology here.
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With a view to encourage the DIPECHO Partners and other parties interested in DRR to implement similar processes, the site offers a section with the following methodological 
