Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean publishes disaster assessment exercise guide

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has been a pioneer in the field of disaster assessment and in the development and dissemination of the Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) methodology. Following several devastating hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters over the last few years in Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC has carried out several successful DaLA missions.

Now ECLAC has introduced a Disaster Assessment Methodology Exercise Guide, developed for the DaLA trainings. The guide consists of 12 practical exercises about how to estimate the effects on several sectors including electricity, education, health and other areas.

The exercise guide is a pedagogical tool to the third edition of ECLAC’s well-known 2014 Handbook for Disaster Assessment. Since this Handbook was published, considerable efforts have been made to encourage wider use of it by means of national and regional courses. The purpose of these newly designed exercises and the solutions to them is to reinforce the basic concepts used in estimating the effects of a disaster, namely damage, losses and additional costs, all of which are the core of this Handbook.

With the global focus on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in keeping with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is important to note that nine of the 17 goals relate directly to disaster risk management. Therefore, this publication is timely in acknowledging the vital need to develop strategies which can assist in the reduction of disasters.