The GCDS aims to “gather and store disaster statistics from national governments, conduct analyses along with other cooperating agencies, and redistribute the results to national governments to be utilized in their respective national DRR policy-making process.” “Disaster statistics” refers to “statistics about human and economic damage caused by disasters.” Such statistics are standard in Japan; however, these statistics have not been sufficiently established in many other countries, including the developed nations. Worldwide, for many years, measures primarily have been taken after the occurrence of disasters. The idea of DRR in disaster preparedness during normal times is relatively new; the trend for gathering disaster data during normal times to be utilized in DRR policy has finally become mainstream worldwide through the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction/Disaster Risk Reduction, which has been held in Japan three times since 1994.

 

Why are disaster statistics necessary? It is because DRR cannot progress simply by just “wanting to progress.” For example, if there are no disaster statistics available for Country A, it will be difficult to ascertain its realistic situation of disaster damage. Furthermore, in Country A, it is necessary to display, for example, “mortality and economic damage decrease after investment, comparing pre- and post-investment conditions” to formulate a DRR policy, invest in DRR, and objectively investigate the investment effects. These activities cannot be performed without disaster statistics. DRR should be promoted as a set comprising situation analysis, policy making, implementation, and verification. Disaster statistics is necessary in all of those stages.

In fact, prior to the foundation of the GCDS, there were attempts to establish global disaster statistics. These data could not be effectively utilized for the national DRR policy-making process, however, for reasons such as that data were not from national governments and thus unofficial, that data lacked quality and quantity, or that their systems were unstable. On the contrary, the objective of the GCDS is to gather data from national governments comprehensively and systematically. In this sense, the role of this Centre is groundbreaking.

 

The GCDS gathers data from national governments and creates structures where the derived data can be utilized for DRR, through cooperation among Tohoku University IRIDeS, UNDP, and Fujitsu by employing the strengths of each party. Tohoku University IRIDeS, which includes DRR researchers from various fields, considers overall structures from data collection to its usage and is responsible for analyzing and studying the collected data. The UNDP assists national governance around the world and has strong networks with various countries; thus, it is at the forefront in promoting the establishment and collection of official national statistical data systems. Furthermore, with its own offices in developing countries, the UNDP trains personnel for the establishment of disaster statistics by conducting projects for assistance and training in each country. Fujitsu has constructed a “global database” to store the collected disaster statistics and is contributing its advanced technical capabilities in information and communications technology.

 

By inserting the data from each country into the GCDS, the essential expertise to be utilized in DRR policy-making process is procured; it also contributes in paving the way to achieving the “global targets” that are the cornerstone of the SFDRR.

 

It has to be noted, however, that currently disaster statistics are not yet being comprehensively supplied on the database and the data cannot be used immediately. With the establishment of the Centre, an organizational basis for the global establishment and maintenance of official disaster statistics has been organized. When disaster statistics from many countries have finally been supplied, the GCDS will be able to demonstrate the power to contribute on a global scale, as its name implies. However, the first stage is to prepare a “repository” to store data as a prototype of a data collection system, targeting pilot countries.

The Centre has begun conducting activities in cooperation with several countries that are highly interested in establishing statistics. Currently, seven countries (Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, Myanmar, and the Maldives) have agreed to be pilot countries. Opportunities are being provided to confirm awareness of the establishment and maintenance of disaster statistics by holding a Disaster Statistics Symposium every year with officials of each country’s DRR supervising department. Government officials become transferred and change every few years in each country, and thus such opportunities will be required regularly also in the future. Furthermore, in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency, awareness-raising and educational activities for disaster statistics are being included in DRR training in countries beyond the pilot countries.

 

At the same time, a global database, a core part of the Centre, has been constructed. Agreement has been obtained from the pilot countries with respect to the details regarding the data that should be collected and the method of data collection. Disaster statistics that existed prior to the establishment of the Centre are being converted to items that conform to the target indicators of the SFDRR, and efforts are being promoted to reuse such data, alongside the data that is collected specifically by the Centre. Through such means, formats are being prepared so that each country can report their progress to UN.