Geoinformation for Disaster and Risk Management - ISPRS

WFP'S EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE BRANCH.
Emergency Preparedness is a key policy for the World Food Programme the
world's largest humanitarian agency. Investing in disaster preparedness and
mitigation measures is the second of WFP's five strategic objectives - the core of
its vision and operation.
Preparedness means having the information, technology, planning and thinking
in place to anticipate an emergency so as to respond to it more rapidly and
efficiently. It means monitoring man-made and natural hazards closely,
analyzing this information carefully and
methodically and making it easily accessible to key decision makers and the
wider staff of WFP. It means using the newest and most innovative technologies
to make WFP's work faster, leaner and smarter.
EARLY WARNING
The Early Warning team at the Emergency Preparedness and Response Branch
provides a comprehensive monitoring service - watching droughts, floods,
tropical storms, volcanic activity, earthquakes - alongside the social and
economic hazards which can turn a crisis into an emergency. Its analytical
expertise allows WFP to react when it can see a disaster in the making.
The team combs the international media and uses both internal and external
humanitarian sources to provide forecasts, warnings and alerts - both to WFP
staff and to those of other agencies. It produces daily news headlines and early
warning developments, provides key dates on a weekly and three-monthly basis
and produces WFP's contribution to the Early Warning Early Action Report. This
is a key inter-agency resource - every quarter it is presented to key UN
humanitarian agencies at the Inter-Agency Sub-Committee, which the Chief of
Emergency Preparedness and Response Branch co-chairs.
The Emergency Preparedness and Response Branch is now in the process of
further extending its social and economic early warning capacity. It has brought
on board important technical, academic and commercial partners and is leading
the development of a web-based system to better gather and manage
information, as well as to mine data. New areas - such as social networking - are
being explored to ensure that the warning signs which can save lives are picked
up. These new tools are vital when our changing climate is provoking more
competition for natural resources.
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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
World Food Programme
Fighting Hunger Worldwide
Today's world is abuzz with information - it's hard to easily and efficiently access
what is most important and useful. Alongside its Early Warning information
service, the Emergency Preparedness and Response Branch manages WFP's
large resource of geographical and geo-spatial information. It is working to bring
it all together, in one place to promote easy access and to avoid duplication.
EPweb - the dedicated Emergency Preparedness website complements this
mission. Constantly updated and expanded, EPweb now holds nearly 3,000
maps, information on food prices, on where WFP's offices and stocks are
worldwide, alongside in-depth information about individual countries and areas
of concern. EPweb allows decision-makers and field staff straightforward and
rapid access to information - helping them to mitigate the effects of an
emergency. When a disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane strikes special
Crisis pages are immediately activated to help speed up and streamline WFP's
response, with information gathered together for easy access in one place.