The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) staff will provide training on Post-Disaster Damage, Loss, and Needs Assessment Methodology to increase the Ugandan communities’ disaster preparedness and response capacities. Based on the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) 2003 Handbook for Estimating the Socio-economic and Environmental Effects of Disasters (see Annex 1 for details), the training is part of a comprehensive package that enables national professionals to apply this knowledge in their day-to-day work, thereby institutionalizing disaster risk reduction and recovery in the country’s contingency planning and response mechanisms.

Objectives

The purpose of the training is to: “expose trainees to the conceptual framework as well as practical application of the methodological tool for damage and loss assessment”, thus enabling the country to establish a cadre of disaster management professionals.

Activities

The training covers sector-by-sector and macroeconomic analyses of the effects of the main types of disasters to ensure that all trainees become acquainted not only with the procedures for assessment in their individual sector of interest, but the linkages with other sectors and the view of the macroeconomic impact of disasters as well. The practical aspects of data collection, processing and analysis in the field are also discussed. Professionals drawn from all Government line Ministries and disaster departments, UN Agencies, NGOs, donor partners etc are expected to participate.

Outputs

The outcome of this training is that the participants, selected from all government ministries and agencies involved in post-disaster work, will be able to identify and quantify disaster damage and losses in all sectors of the economy, ensuring that these sectors receive attention in case of a disaster. The assessment tool can also be applied ex-ante to prepare contingency plans to minimize the negative impacts when disasters strike.
The above ensures that there now exists a core group of Ugandan professionals that can be called upon to participate and conduct an assessment of damage, losses and needs arising from disasters of every kind that may lead to the definition of post disaster recovery and reconstruction programs as well as to the ex ante analysis of different scenarios for defining disaster risk mitigation planning purposes. After the training, it would now be desirable to expose this group of professionals to an actual assessment of disaster impact to widen their exposure to this type of work.

The methodology developed by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) is used to estimate the effects and impact of natural hazards. DALA was developed in the 1970s and since then has been strengthened, simplified and customized for application in different areas of the world.

DALA bases the assessment of disaster impacts on the overall economy of the affected country as well as on household level. This provides a basis for defining the needs for recovery and reconstruction following any disaster. DALA estimates:

• Damage as the replacement value of totally or partially destroyed physical assets that must be included in the reconstruction program;
• Losses in the flows of the economy that arise from the temporary absence of the damaged assets;

The resulting impact on post-disaster economic performance, with special reference to economic growth, the fiscal position and the balance of payments.