One of Latin America’s leading authorities on natural disasters, Omar Darío Cardona, led a group of experts from Latin America and the Caribbean in the development of a set of four indicators measuring the potential impact of natural disasters in 12 countries in the region, their vulnerability to catastrophes and their capacity to manage such risks.
The new indicators, developed with the help of IDB financing, are meant to be a tool for decision-makers in charge of policies throughout the region. The set of indicators relies on two decades of data from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The indicators can help monitor the evolution of each country’s risk management capacity over time. They also allow for comparisons between countries, and they hould help steer financial, economic, environmental and social policies. The indicators can be used not only at country level, but adapt to the requirements of provinces, states, regions, cities and municipalities as well.
The system consists of four major indices:
The Disaster Deficit Index estimates the macroeconomic and financial exposure of countries in front of major natural disasters.
The Local Disaster Index evaluates regularity in magnitude and distribution of effects of small-scale natural disasters in terms of number of deaths, people affected and concentration of losses.
The Prevalent Vulnerability Index surveys demographic exposure, socio-economic fragility, and the weakness of institutions and infrastructure.
The Risk Management Index evaluates how well countries identify risks, what they do to reduce them, how they respond to disasters and what budgetary and financial protection they have arranged.