Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) is now being done simultaneously in Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and Meghalaya.

Why in news?

• PDNA is now being used to evaluate the financial and social cost of local disasters in eight states in India.
• These states all experienced severe flooding in the last few months.
• The results of these assessments are likely to come out next month.

What is PDNA?

• 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 is an international framework for assessing losses and damages in the aftermath of a disaster.
• The framework helps get recovery and reconstruction efforts right following a disaster.
• 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.

Components of PDNA

• PDNA includes a calculation of the disaster’s impact on Gross Domestic Product, the balance of payment and fiscal budget.
• Secondly, how this affects the flow of revenue to multiple sectors is 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.

History of PDNA in India

• 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.
• 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.

15th Finance Commission provision

• The 15th finance commission report of 2021, for the first time, made a provision for recovery and reconstruction in the national disaster management budget, which is at the core of the PDNA.
• The states did not receive international funding to do the current ongoing PDNAs, as they are expected to take the money from the budget.

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