Technological advances can help reduce the global death toll following extreme weather events, despite the increase in frequency and magnitude of such events and population growth. For this reason, the Connecting Business initiative (CBi), a programme supported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), partnered with the UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (ICPSD) SDG AI Lab to better understand the role of technology in disaster management and the role of the private sector in spearheading the broader adoption of innovations that can save lives and livelihoods.

One of the outputs of this partnership is the “Innovation in Disaster Management” Report. This report aims to introduce and raise awareness about key technologies for disaster management, illustrate how they are most commonly used, and outline the main challenges and key considerations associated with them. The hope is that this will fuel advocacy around the use of technology to foster resilience. Extensive study, expert advice, and real-world implementation have shown these technologies to be essential facilitators of catastrophe resilience that reduce casualties, preserve livelihoods, and improve catastrophe preparedness, response, and recovery.

The report research outputs have been fed into a Frontier Technology Radar for Disaster Risk Reduction (FTR4DRR). The Radar is a joint initiative of ICPSD SDG AI Lab, UNDP Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery for Building Resilience Team (DRT) and CBi. FTR4DRR allows for the systematic tracking and understanding of frontier technologies as they are developed. This would categorize technological solutions according to their technology type, disaster/crisis type and maturity level. The partners have enhanced user experience and developed a new version of the FTR4DRR and would like to present it at the report launch event. The digital tool has benefitted from the valuable contribution of the United Nations Online Volunteers. 

The Innovation in Disaster Management Report launch event showcases emerging frontier technologies and their practical application for disaster risk reduction, resilience building, and policy making. The Report Launch Event also introduces FTR4DRR 2.0 to the general public and development stakeholders.  

Watch the recording: