# Presentation: 513491

## MesoAmerican & Caribbean GeoSpatial Alliance (MACGA) Seminar

**CARIBBEAN INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR DECISION MAKING**
**Saint Vincent & The Grenadines**
**March 18, 2004**

## CDERA THE ORGANISATION

- Regional Disaster Management Organisation
- Established by CARICOM Heads of Governments in 1991
- Three Organs – Council of Ministers, Board of Directors, Coordinating Unit
- Membership – 16 English Speaking CARICOM States

## CDERA MANDATE

- Main function is to make “immediate and coordinated response” to disasters in Participating States (PS)
- To mobilize and coordinate disaster relief from governmental and non-governmental organizations for affected PS
- To promote the establishment, enhancement and maintenance of disaster response capabilities among PS.

## MAIN ACTIVITIES

- Manage Transition to CDM
- Information Sharing and Management
- Managing Regional Response Mechanism
- Mitigation of Disaster Impacts
- Programme/Project design and implementation

## THE CARIBBEAN STRATEGY 

**ON **
**COMPREHENSIVE DISASTER MANAGEMENT (CDM)**

## COMPREHENSIVE DISASTER MANAGEMENT

_**What is CDM?**_
**Integrated Management of all Hazards**
**Management of all Phases of the Disaster Cycle**
**Engagement of all Sectors**
**Integrating Vulnerability Assessments and Risk Reduction into Planning and Development**

## CDM STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

## A consultative process

- CDERA’s policy is to collaborate with  organisations with shared  interests
- This  helps to ensure more rational use of the limited resources as duplication is minimized.
- Also ensures that  technical assistance provided is of the highest quality as each agency can take the lead in the area where it has specific technical expertise

## Slide 9

## INFORMATION MANAGEMENT– A CROSS CUTTING ISSUE

- The CDM Strategy recognises Information Management and the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) as a cross-cutting issue

## SUMMARY AREAS FOR INTERVENTION

- Develop CDERA as coordinating unit
- NDO strengthening v.a.v needs of territories
- Collaboration and cooperation of stakeholders
- Sector specific programs
- Research and database development
- Information dissemination
- Sharing of best practices
- Collaboration of funding agencies

## INITIATIVES

- CADM
- CHAMP
- CDB/DMFC
- UNESCO
- US SOUTHCOM
- UNTFHS (SAR)
- CDM

## ONGOING EFFORTS

- Collaboration with Regional Partners to deepen CDM Institutionalisation
- Ongoing Resource mobilisation
- Technical Assistance to Countries to implement CDM
- Focussed Training

## 

CDERA’S INFORMATION POLICY

**CDERA’S INFORMATION POLICY**

## CDERA’S INFORMATION POLICY

- enhance CDERA’s visibility as a leader in the promotion of disaster management.
- Promote acceptance and ownership of Comprehensive Disaster Management.
- enhance the Coordinating Unit’s capacity to access, collate, analyze and disseminate information on all aspects of disaster management.
- support the institutionalization of disaster management teaching and research in regional universities
- To enhance availability and promote awareness of disaster management information to the public

## Implementation of Policy

- CDERA/CDB collaboration on Hazard Mapping & Vulnerability Assessments
- Survey of availability of Digital Maps – common digital database
- Methodology for developing Flood Hazard Mapping

## ACTIVITIES

- Strengthening capability as Disaster Information Clearing house:
- Digitising existing paper maps, putting on a common platform
- Making available new maps for pilot areas
- Common platform for disseminating information
- Automating process, Web based services

## The INTEGRATED DECISION-MAKING SUPPORT SYSTEM

***A CDERA / SOUTHCOM/HAP INITIATIVE***

## WHAT IS THE IDSS

- 	A Management Tool which incorporates geographic information systems (GIS), visualization, and analytical models, responds to requirements for hazard analysis, risk and vulnerability assessments, mitigation and preparedness planning, and education, training and exercise support.

## The IDSS cont’d

- An Information Sharing Framework rather than merely an Information System
- Distributed Network
- Decision-Making Support System
- Collaborative environment / Integration
- Data intensive/dependent
- Hardware/software platform
- Real-time applications

## GOALS OF THE SYSTEM

- 1) provide the fundamental mechanisms needed to allow sharing of information between decision-makers at various levels,
- 2) provide the capability to view the issue at various scales from regional to national to local and,
- 3) enable collaboration between participants so that there is a common understanding of the situation at hand.

## IDSS Framework 

- 	The true goal in integrated decision-making support is to provide the decision-maker with the ability to look into the future.  That is, predict in advance the risk and vulnerability of populations and infrastructure to hazards, both natural and man-induced.  This requires that data be transformed into knowledge..

## IDSS Objective

**IDSS Objective**

- Equip disaster and humanitarian assistance managers, at all levels of decision-making, and across the four emergency management functions of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery, with a *suite of tools, processes, standards and applications *to* *enable:
-  Access, integration, sharing, and  dissemination of timely and relevant information and knowledge
-  Creation of a common operating environment for improved planning, collaboration, decision-making and execution

## ELEMENTS OF THE SYSTEM

- ICS
- GEOCAS
- OPEN SOURCES

## Slide 25

## Slide 26

## Current Constraints

- Data/Information are available, but...
- Hard to find and from multiple sources
- Multiple formats
- Difficult to integrate
- Tools are available, but...
- Hard to find and from multiple sources
- Multiple formats
- Difficult to ingest data
- Collaboration is difficult, particularly in time of crisis

## THE CHALLENGE(S)

- Disparate “systems” and “information sources” need to be integrated
- Data/Information are available, but
- Hard to find and from multiple sources/locations
- Multiple formats
- Challenging and time consuming to integrate
- Tools are available, but...
- Hard to find and from multiple sources/platforms
- Can be difficult to ingest data
- Challenging to use and interpret....

## CHALLENGES cont’d

- Collaboration and coordination can be challenging particularly in a time of crisis - information needs to be shared among agencies (local/regional, planning, etc)
- Who’s doing what?...Who needs what?...
- What is happening?...What happens if?
- IT infrastructure is inconsistent - solution needs to accommodate all levels of capability.
- Policies and procedures at different levels of government and internationally are (necessarily) different - Some may not be in place to enable information sharing and full utilization of an IDSS.

## Issues for Consideration

**Issues for Consideration**

- Compatibility Issues
- Data Format, Measurement Units, ...
- Different Vendor Products, Versioning, ...
- Ethernet, Token Ring, ...
- Organizational
- Sensitive Data Definition Varies
- Security Issues / Accessing Shared Data
- Capacity Differs From Country to Country
- Bandwidth Cost is High
- Systems, Data, Models Expertise Limited

## Key Benefits

- Empowering Local Users
- Incremental Investments Made Locally
- Data Quality Improves Locally
- Increasing Awareness
- Combining Local Data for the Big Picture
- Aggregating the Results
- Common Operating Picture
- Collaboration & Tool Integration
- Reducing Data Duplication

## Present Status

- Early stages of consideration by wide group of stakeholders
- ICSAC
- CDERA’s Board
- Regional Partners
- Data providers
- UWI
- Work and Implementation Plan including Budget being developed
- Orientation and Training ongoing
- User Groups being established

## INTEGRATED DECISION-MAKING

- 	The direction in which the emergency management community is going that will leverage technological advances and lead to sustainable development

## Slide 34

## Thank You

- For further Information Contact:
- CDERA Coordinating Unit
- Bldg #1, Manor Lodge Complex
- Lodge Hill, St. Michael, BARBADOS
- Tel #: (246) 425 0386
- Fax #: (246) 425 8854
- Email: _[cdera@caribsurf.com](mailto:cdera@caribsurf.com)_
- url: _[http://www.cdera.org](http://www.cdera.org/)_