Regional workshop, training course on DesInventar in Indian.

As continuation of the effort recently started by UNDP to create disaster inventories in the Indian subcontinent, a second run of workshops were held in the city of New Delhi, consisting in a one-day sub-regional workshop on Disaster Inventories for States in India, and a three-day workshop on DesInventar for the states of Delhi, Uttaranchal, Gujarat and Assan.

During the sub-regional workshop, held May 27, 2003, a presentation was made sharing the Latin American experience of creating and maintaining inventories in over 20 countries, showing the achievements and difficulties, and also presenting a detailed view of the DesInventar methodology, the cornerstone of the project.

A round table followed the presentation in which several aspects of the methodology were discussed, as well as the challenges, the implementation and logistics of the historical research phase of the project. A group of 10 people from several states in India attended to this meeting, with the support of the core team supporting DesInventar within UNDP.

A three-day training workshop (28-30 May of 2003) was held for the team that will build the inventories in the four states. The group included UNDP staff delegated to the government of the four States, staff from the Disaster Mitigation Institute in Gujarat and several representatives of disaster management authorities in those states.

The workshop was conducted by the member of la Red Julio Serje, who was assisted by Sujit Mohanty and Deepa Chavaly as co-trainers finalizing their training as trainers. The venue of the workshop was the new premises of the Disaster Risk Management team in Defence Colony, Delhi.

Responding to a kind invitation from UNDP, members of LA RED traveled to India between the 20 and 26 of November being involved in several activities sharing the experiences of the Disaster Inventories project in Latin America, DesInventar, and collaborating with the start of the same project in India.

The trip had three activities as primary objectives, a one-day sub-regional workshop on Disaster Inventories in Asia, a presentation and attendance to the International Seminar on Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation, and a three-day training workshop on DesInventar in the state of Orissa.

During the sub-regional workshop a presentation of two hours was made sharing the Latin American experience of creating and maintaining inventories in over 20 countries, showing the achievements and difficulties, and also presenting a detailed view of the DesInventar methodology, the cornerstone of the project. A group of 20 people from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan  attended to this meeting.

A presentation of the DesInventar project was made during the second day of the International Seminar, the Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Summit 2002, held in Delhi the 21,22 and 23 of November, with more that 150 attendants from most of the countries of the region. A paper specially written for the occasion DesInventar: a methodology to build Disaster Inventories as part of the Risk Mitigation Process supported the presentation.

As a kick-off for the project DesInventar in India, a three-day training workshop (23-25 November 2002) was held for the staff of UNDP India Vulnerability Reduction and Sustainable Environment (VRSE) Team and the Orissa State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) in the city of Bhubaneshwar, state of Orissa in India. Three staff members from UNDP Delhi, eight from UNDP House II at Bhubaneshwar and one person from OSDMA (Orissa State Disaster Management Authority) attended the workshop.

This team of 12 staff members will carry out the historical research for the state of Orissa, which itself if as large and populated as many other countries: over 40 million inhabitants and and area of over 150.000 Km2.