15th Finance Commission on Post Disaster Needs Assessment

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The Post Disaster Needs Assessment(PDNA)-

• • The PDNA is an internationally accepted methodology for determining the physical damages, economic losses, and costs of meeting recovery needs after a natural disaster through a government-led process.
  • It was developed by the UN, the World Bank and the European Union.
  • Compared with an ordinary assessment, the damage to infrastructure and how it impacts the stock of the economy at the macro-economic level is calculated first in a PDNA.
  • This includes a calculation of the disaster’s impact on Gross Domestic Product, the balance of payment and fiscal budget. 
  • How this affects the flow of revenue to multiple sectors is also evaluated.
  • For example, the number of farmers’ income affected per damaged acre of land and the livelihoods lost. 
  • Overall, a quantitative assessment is additionally done on the social and environmental impact of the disaster.
  • The Indian PDNA manual of 2019 says that this is not a replacement for the current Relief Memorandum used by states. 
• PDNA adds a recovery and resilience component to disaster management.

Note: 

• • PDNA is being done simultaneously in Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and Meghalaya.

• This is not the first time PDNA has been conducted in India. It was first adopted during the Kerala floods of 2018 and again during the cyclone in Odisha in 2019, both unprecedented disasters.  
• However, until now, the assessment was only limited to massive disasters that required international funding from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations, as state capacities were compromised due to the scale of the disasters.
• Globally, of the 55 PDNAs conducted worldwide since 2008, only two droughts — one in Malawi and the other Marshall Islands in 2016 were of slow-onset disasters. 

Further reading: https://journalsofindia.com/15th-finance-commission-report/

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