Improving Disaster Risk Reduction in Bangladesh through Capacity Development in GIS and Applications of Satellite Imagery
27 October 2015, Dhaka, Bangladesh – UNOSAT has completed training of 16 disaster management professionals representing 13 various line ministries of the Bangladesh government. Focus of this capacity development was Geospatial Information Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). The course was delivered in collaboration with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 14 to 27 October 2015, at the Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARRSO) premises.
The in-country training was primarily designed to promote the understanding of the importance of geospatial information technology applications for DRR. Active knowledge sharing was emphasized through a mix of lectures and GIS lab exercises combined with
round table discussions and field simulations. UNOSAT’s crowd-sourcing app UN-ASIGN was used in the training and participants were able to contribute to situational awareness by taking and sharing geo-tagged photos.
Overall, the course met its aim to provide participants with GIS and Remote Sensing (RS) methodologies related to disaster risk assessment to emergency response. The course received very good feedback from participants. Based on the evaluations 100% of participants indicated that the course content was relevant to their day-to-day work and they intended to use the information acquired from the training course.
At the end of the course, the participants were invited to form an expert geospatial working group on UNOSAT’s community of practice platform where they would continue to work on individual GIS projects that are to be realized six months after the training in a refresher course. The community of practice is also purposed to facilitate networking and collaboration as mentioned one of the participants Mir Fahim Shaunak of the Center for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS):
“Most trainings are a onetime event but with the community of practice, we can continue to collaborate and share our experiences".
To ensure regional ownership, the community of practice will be moderated under the supervision of the Bangladesh Department of Disaster Management (DDM). UNOSAT will continue providing technical support to the participants in order to reinforce the skills acquisition process.
Through its regional liaison office in Bangkok, UNOSAT will continue developing DRR capacities of countries across the Southeast Asia region by offering practical solutions derived from GIS and satellite imagery. UNOSAT aims to have a greater impact on its contribution to bridging the gap between communities and technology so as to improve resilience and reduce risks locally.
This capacity development activity and it’s technical backstopping was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.