Explore the vast range of titles available.

In recent years, the world has seen both massive destruction caused by natural disasters and immense financial and physical support for the victims of these calamities. So that these natural hazards do not become manmade disasters, effective systems are required to identify needs, manage data, and help calibrate responses. If well designed, such systems can help coordinate the influx of aid to ensure the timely and efficient delivery of assistance to those who need it most. 'Data Against Natural Disasters' seeks to provide the analytical tools needed to enhance national capacity for disaster response. The editors and authors begin with an overview that summarizes key lessons learned form the six country case studies in the volume. Next, they outline the data needs that arise at different stages in the disaster response and explore the humanitarian community's efforts to discover more effective response mechanisms. The country case studies review the successes and failures of efforts to establish innovative monitoring systems in the aftermath of disasters in Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. 'Data Against Natural Disasters' will be useful to policy makers and others working in port-calamity situations who are seeking to design new monitoring systems or to improve existing ones for disaster response management.

This report addresses the large flood exposures of Central Europe and proposes efficient financial and risk transfer mechanisms to mitigate fiscal losses from natural catastrophes. In particular, the Visegrad countries (V-4) of Central Europe, namely, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the Slovak Republic, have such tremendous potential flood damages that reliance on budgetary appropriations or even European Union (EU) funds in such circumstances becomes ineffective and does not provide needed cash funds for the quick response and recovery needed to minimize economic disruptions. The report is primarily addressed to the governments of the region, which should build into their fiscal planning the necessary contingent funding mechanisms, based on their exposures. The report is addressed to finance ministries and also to the insurance and securities regulators and the private insurance and capital markets, which may all play a role in the proposed mechanisms. An arrangement using a multi-country pool with a hazard-triggered insurance payout mechanism complemented by contingent financing is proposed, to better manage these risks and avoid major fiscal volatility and disruption.

The private health sector was officially recognized in the Republic of Congo over 20 years ago June 6, 1988, establishing the conditions for the independent practice of medicine and the medical-related and pharmaceutical professions. The Congolese government recently expressed its commitment to working with the private health sector in order to strengthen the health system, improve the health of the population and preserve the basic human right to a healthy life through the National Health Care Policy, which it adopted in 2003, the 2007-2011 National Health Development Plan and the 2010 Health Care Services Development Program. Throughout these various documents there is an acknowledgement that the lack of coordination with the private health sector is a weakness of the health system. Nevertheless, the scarcity of information about the private sector in policy and planning documents suggests that the government's engagement with the private health sector is limited. There is no official government policy on the private health sector, or strategies or working plans to encourage cooperation between the public and private sectors. The objective of this assessment was to better determine the role, position, and importance of the private sector within the health system, in order to identify the limitations to its development as well as ways it can be integrated into the efforts to meet the objectives of the Plan national de developpement sanitaire (PNDS) [National Health Development Plan]. The World Bank Group contracted with the Results for Development Institute (R4D, United States) and Health Research for Action (HERA, Belgium) as well as with a team of local consultants, to conduct a 'study of the private health sector in the Republic of Congo.' This study was conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Population (MSP), which arranged and oversaw a steering committee consisting of actors from the public and private sectors to facilitate and guide the study. The goal of the study and the workshops was a concrete plan of action for the health sector that could be used by the Congolese government, the private sector in the Republic of Congo, and international development partners. Certain aspects of the action plan should be included in the work programs of the Programme de developpement des services de sante (PDSS) [Health System Development Project] for the years 2011-2013.

This paper reviews the literature on the macroeconomic impact of natural disasters and presents the IMF's role in assisting countries coping with natural catastrophes. Focusing on seven country cases, the paper describes the emergency financing, policy support, and technical assistance provided by the Fund to help governments put together a policy response or build a macro framework to lay the foundation for recovery and/or unlock other external financing. The literature and experience suggests there are ways to strengthen policy frameworks to increase resilience to natural disaster shocks, including identifying the risks and probability of natural disasters and integrating them more explicitly into macro frame-works, increasing flexibility within fiscal frameworks, and improving coordination amongst international partners ex post and ex ante.

The altruistic behaviour of community-based volunteers in disaster situations determines the success rate of rescue achievements. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are differences in the altruistic behaviour of volunteers in different types of disaster event threats, namely, landslides, volcanic eruptions, droughts and tsunamis in Yogyakarta. A quantitative study was conducted to answer the research question. The study involved 292 disaster volunteer participants, using the survey method. Hypothesis testing in this study used statistical methods in the form of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The scores used were factor scores obtained from the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) analysis. The data were analysed using jamovi software version 2.3.18. The results of the one-way ANOVA analysis showed no difference in altruism in the types of disaster threats of landslides, volcanic eruptions, droughts and tsunamis in Yogyakarta. Contribution The results of this study can be considered as supporting information in developing programmes by supporting the altruistic behaviour of community-based disaster volunteers. The sincerity of community-based disaster volunteers in the form of altruistic behaviour is not influenced by the type of disaster threat. One form of collective altruistic behaviour that is important and prominent in Indonesian culture is gotong royong. Gotong royong is a joint activity of helping each other without being paid, which is local wisdom in Indonesia. It is therefore important for policymakers to preserve local wisdom values such as gotong royong in disaster risk reduction programmes across different types of disaster threats.

Natural disasters tend to ruin people’s lives and infrastructure, which requires comprehensive analysis and understanding to inform effective disaster management and response planning. This research addresses the lack of in-depth analysis of federally declared disasters in the United States using a dataset sourced from FEMA. Through the application of unsupervised learning techniques, including K-means clustering, DBSCAN, self-organizing maps (SOM), and the Gaussian mixture model (GMM), similar types of disasters are clustered based on their frequency. The relationship between disaster type and disaster frequency is analyzed to gain insight into patterns and correlations, facilitating targeted mitigation and adaptation strategies. By using the techniques of clustering, we can accurately group similar disaster types, duration time, occurring time and location of disaster. By implementing these approaches, our study aims to improve the understanding of disaster occurrences and inform decision-making processes in disaster mitigation strategies and adaptation strategies.

Since the 1990s, efforts have been made to reduce the damage caused by natural disasters, among which the Disaster Impact Assessment (DIA) System implemented in 1995 is noteworthy for its proactive response. The DIA System has undergone various institutional and technological changes to retain its original purpose. However, its operation has become inadequate because of the diversification of business types. This paper presents the improvements required in the DIA System based on an analysis of the problems that have emerged during its institutional development and over 9000 pieces of data collected from 2015 to 2017. The results show that, first, the DIA's Practical Guidelines should be subdivided, considering the diversity of projects. Second, the system should be strengthened to ensure it is not mistaken for a mere bureaucratic box-ticking exercise. Third, non-structural measures should be expanded to reduce the number of casualties after development. Incorporating the improvements proposed in this study will improve the effectiveness of the DIA. Additionally, the DIA System could be established as an important model for Korea's disaster risk reduction activities.

The relationship between natural hazard-induced disasters and macroeconomic growth has been examined widely on global and national scales, but little research has been focused on the subnational level, especially in China. We examined the impacts of natural hazard-induced disasters on the regional growth in China based on subnational panel data for the period from 1990 to 2016. First, we used the number of people affected and the direct economic losses as the measures of the scale of disasters. Then, we used the direct damages of meteorological disasters and earthquakes as disaster measures separately to examine the impacts of different disaster types. Finally, we performed intraregional effects regressions to observe the spatial heterogeneity within the regions. The results show that the adverse short-term effects of disasters is most pronounced in the central region, while the direct damage of disasters is a positive stimulus of growth in the whole of China. However, this stimulus is observed in a lagged way and is reflected differently—meteorological disasters in central and eastern China and earthquakes in western China are related to regional growth. The results demonstrate that the short-term macroeconomic impacts of these disasters in the three geographical regions of China largely depend on regional economic development levels and the disaster types.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify various issues and challenges that humanitarian supply chains face on the ground. The paper aims at defining the major problems facing humanitarian endeavors and searches for their possible solutions with the help of the available literature and via interactions with those who have ground-level experience of humanitarian operations. Design/methodology/approach – The authors have focussed on building a theory and proposing solutions for the real-time problems faced in disaster environments. Besides drawing insights from available and relevant literature, the paper’s authors have sought information from those people in the humanitarian supply chain who have had ground-level experience as well. The authors have quoted real examples and statements in order to make situations more clear and precise. Findings – Humanitarian relief supply chains in today’s environment often confront challenges such as information availability, inventory management, collaboration, logistics-related issues, preparedness, etc. The study explores these various challenges. After searching for the roots of these challenges in the extant literature, it proposes some substantial solutions, which can be studied further for their validity, acceptability and implementation. Research limitations/implications – The research has considered natural disasters, but not man-made ones. It has also concentrated for its examples on India. The conditions in other countries and their practices for dealing with disaster management may vary to a certain extent. There are many kinds of natural disaster, such as volcanoes, which occur elsewhere, but have not historically stricken India. As a result, the study is confined to considering disaster-specific practices that are pertinent to the Indian authorities. Practical implications – This research could initiate further work on any of the various issues explored by the study. There is scope for separate attention to be paid to each of the issues discussed. The study’s insights will help humanitarian relief practitioners to understand disaster situations better. It will also convince practitioners and future researchers to focus on and analyze the proposed frameworks. Originality/value – The paper presents issues drawn from real situations experienced on the ground in humanitarian relief environments. With the help of extant literature, the authors have tried to conceptualize these issues and their potential solutions.

This chapter contains sections titled: Overview and Introduction The Training Journey So Far Who Needs to Be Trained? What Needs to Be Trained? Using Scenarios as Exercises in Training for Front‐line Personnel Air Berlin's Experiences of Using Scenarios with A Command Team: Case Study The Challenge of Training Personnel for Deployment Specific Training for Managers Who Deploy Specific Skills Required by Trainers The Reality of Deployments: Understanding Team Welfare Using Training for Selection of Personnel Conclusions References Further Reading