Global Risk Identification Programme

Update

Organisations active in disaster risk identification have collaboratively decided to establish an inter-institutional framework to support and coordinate activities to promote systematic improvement and application of risk information. A global programme has been created for assessing, identifying and analysing information on disaster risks and losses, the Global Risk Identification Programme (GRIP).

The ProVention Consortium and UNDP have agreed to undertake a preparatory phase during 2005-2006 to design a programme framework and outline of activities, identify participating partners and ascertain a feasible and appropriate governance and management structure for such an ambitious inter-institutional programme. The concept and potential application of GRIP has attracted wide interest and support.

Description

The main objective of GRIP is an improved evidence base for disaster risk management to enable the application and prioritisation of effective disaster risk reduction strategies at the national, regional and global scales. The programme will add value to, and improve coordination between, a number of ongoing international initiatives, providing an active network where international organisations and UN agencies, international financial institutions and donors, governments, regional organisations, research institutes, the private sector and NGOs can share knowledge, information, expertise and resources.

Activities

The GRIP provides a framework to support and guide two key parallel programmes of activities:

  • Loss Estimation to provide a more comprehensive and accurate accounting of disaster-related costs and losses (e.g. economic losses; relief costs, GLIDE implementation; disaster databases);
  • Risk Estimation to improve the availability of information and analysis on disaster risks and risk factors (e.g. hazard characterisation and data; vulnerability assessment; risk indexes).

Resulting data, methods and analyses will be made available through a coordinated knowledge management programme intended to inform the design of disaster risk management and capacity building activities in high-risk countries.

Partners

The preparatory phase is being implemented by UNDP and is financially supported by ProVention, UNDP and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

A number of key organisations, including the World Bank, IADB, Columbia University, CRED, UNEP, OCHA Relief Web, the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, ADRC and LA RED, have been major contributors in taking forward the GRIP idea to establish a formal programme and network.

Timeline

Outputs & events

Important initiatives have been launched, both within the framework of ISDR Working Group III and with the support of the ProVention Consortium, involving a wide range of international and regional organisations and academic institutes. These include the UNDP/UNEP Disaster Risk Index, ProVention World Bank/Columbia University Disaster Risk Hotspots Project, Inter-American Development Bank Indicators of Disaster Risk Management in the Americas, the Global unique disaster identifier number (GLIDE) initiative and the ongoing development of global and national disaster loss databases, such as CRED EM-DAT and DesInventar.

Next Steps

Next steps include formation of a Programme Steering Committee and technical committees, synthesis of methodologies for risk and loss assessment, and consultations with high risk countries to strengthen the evidence on risks and losses to support risk management planning. In addition to initial outputs in the above areas, the preparatory phase will deliver a design for a five year programme.

Links

GRIP website

The Global Risk Identification Program launched its website in 2007: www.gripweb.org.

Useful resources

Significant progress has been made by the international community in recent years in improving the quality and accuracy of global disaster data collection, in developing indicators and indexes of disaster risk and in developing tools and methods for assessing disaster risk at the different spatial levels.

The risk analysis resource section on this website aims to document the key resources available in the field of risk analysis and application developed by the ProVention Consortium and its partners.

Related completed projects