Cliff Chiunda, Office of the President and the Cabinet, speaking at the workshop to establish a disaster loss data base for Malawi, with Clement Chinthu Phiri, Department of Disaster Management Affairs.

Lilongwe, 6 April, 2018 - Malawi today became the latest country in Africa to complete training on establishing a national disaster loss data base, considered an essential prerequisite for being able to report on progress on reducing disaster losses and improving disaster risk management.

Opening the workshop on Wednesday in Lilongwe, Principal Secretary for Administration in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Mr. Cliff Chiunda, said the workshop is expected to develop a database for tracking disaster damages and losses in Malawi.

He said the database will help Malawi account for the disasters that the country experiences. Post Disaster Needs Assessments (PDNAs) for 2015 and 2016 disasters found cost the country K145.6 billion and K275 billion respectively in damages and losses.

“These are the only two disaster events where government conducted a systematic PDNA. The damages and losses of the other disaster events remain unaccounted for,” said Mr. Chiunda.

“When this project is successfully implemented, Malawi will be able to track and record all damages and losses caused by different disasters which will form the evidence base for various information users and decision makers.”

He further noted that efforts to develop the database have come at the right time when the country is hit hard by climate and environmental degradation, saying the tool will guide government investments on disaster risk reduction interventions.

Mr. Chiunda thanked the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) for its technical support towards initiating disaster risk management programmes in the Sub- Saharan African region.