
The World Bank hosted Sept. 25 a gathering of volunteer disaster experts and programmers to develop new tools for disaster response.
One of the challenges the volunteers will address are real-time problems from the Pakistan flood relief effort.
“Volunteer Technical Communities like these present a fundamental shift in how we design and use technology to further disaster prevention and preparedness in disaster-prone countries,” said Saroj Jha, head of the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery. “We are only at the beginning of this story, but given that the learning from communities like Crisis Commons has been implemented in Haiti and Chile, it holds great promise for the future. It is exciting to see the Bank play a leadership role in these emerging communities.”