Collecting Objective Data Integral For Disaster Response Management, Recovery Process

Washington Post: We have too little data to know how to help countries like Nepal recover from natural disasters
Thomas D. Kirsch, director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

“…In medicine, we collect data about what works and what doesn’t. We run experiments; we use scientific evidence to continuously improve our practice and treatments. But in a disaster response, we are so focused on delivering services that there’s hardly any time to collect data. … A few organizations, like Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance and the Johns Hopkins Center for Refugee and Disaster Response (which I direct), are beginning to collect data and establish best practice protocols. But the field is in its infancy. Eventually, we hope to ‘grade’ the response to each event so that we can finally compare the management of responses and focus on what works. … Only by using objective data can we bring the right help to the right people, the right way” (5/1).

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