Pacific Disaster Center and iMMAP announce partnership with first collaboration beginning in Colombia

Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and iMMAP Inc. recently announced a newly signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will enable the two organizations to combine forces. The new partnership aims to enhance their respective efforts in assisting countries where the needs for early warning and risk information are high and the relentless repercussions of climate-change are anticipated to worsen.

PDC and iMMAP Inc. share mutual expertise in an array of skills and areas, including data development and information management tools, geospatial visualization of information, and disaster risk analysis designed to enable sound decision-making and planning. iMMAP’s long-standing support to UN agencies and US government partners in information management and capacity building also ideally complements PDC’s ongoing partnerships with similar entities, such as the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, and USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance. Additionally, both organizations regularly coordinate with OCHA to support disaster response worldwide.

For their first collaborative effort, iMMAP Inc. and PDC plan to work starting in mid-2023 around PDC’s National Disaster Preparedness Baseline Assessment for Colombia with the systematization of a series of nationwide datasets to permit a thorough risk analysis. iMMAP, which has worked in Colombia since 2009, will support PDC’s baseline assessment which was awarded first place by the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction—helping to socialize results with members of the Humanitarian Country Team at the national and local level. William Baron, iMMAP CEO, explained how the combined expertise of PDC and iMMAP Inc. would complement each other to achieve a greater impact in Colombia and beyond.

“Through years of dedication to our work in Colombia, iMMAP Inc. has implemented the use of new technologies and innovation, thereby using fewer resources, to reduce response time and develop a comprehensive understanding of the human factors that affect population movements, migration, settlement patterns, and underlying vulnerabilities. By combining this expertise with PDC’s risk mapping, we can reduce the impact of natural disasters and minimize the damage they cause to communities. We hope that this collaboration will pave the way for more such initiatives in the future,” said Barron.

PDC’s Director of Global Operations Dr. Erin Hughey shared Mr. Barron’s enthusiasm for this first collaboration between the two organizations under the new MoU signed in January 2023.

“The iMMAP team brings invaluable ground-level knowledge and critical expertise to the table derived from years of working within our partner nations. As PDC advances work with countries across Africa and Latin America to build risk knowledge and operationalize the use of risk information in key decisions, we look forward to partnering with iMMAP.”

Dr. Erin Hughey

Following the launch of this first joint-effort in Colombia, iMMAP Inc. and PDC are exploring potential additional collaborations for 2023 in other areas in Latin America, such as Ecuador, but also in Africa with discussions centering on Benin, Madagascar, Ghana and Kenya.