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This publication discusses GFDRR's implementation of its Open Data Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) which has been in action since 2010 in more than 30 highly vulnerable countries.

Traditional approaches to collecting datasets necessary for informed decision making typically take decades to collect, often rely on top-down approaches, and rarely enable communities to be part of the data gathering and its ultimate use.

In contrast, GFDRR's initiative engages communities in mapping their own communities and has proven to be a powerful and sustainable approach to building resilience, from village elders mapping community borders in Jakarta for the first time, to student volunteers mapping Kathmandu before and after the 2015 earthquake, to communities in flood hit Malawi mapping their own villages (village location and name, community facilities, roads etc.).

The process also connects local mappers with the international community of open mappers, provides fundamental on-the-job training and ultimately provides a trained network of volunteers who can respond to map damaged areas when disasters strike and map exposure and vulnerabilities to anticipate future disaster impacts.

Uganda, Niger, Tanzania, and Mozambique were selected to pilot these innovations in disaster risk management. The innovations included novel approaches to risk assessment and the collection and visualization of hazard data in real-time from social media.