Asia-Pacific Stats Café Series: Making Headways in Disaster-Related Statistics

Rikke Munk Hansen is the Chief of Economic and Environment Statistics Section and the officer-in-charge of Statistics Division, ESCAP. She has worked with sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific during the past 21 years, including on statistics, the energy sector, and programme management and evaluation. Rikke manages ESCAP’s work on economic and environment statistics, including its efforts to develop guidance on disaster-related statistics. Rikke holds a Master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from Aalborg University, Denmark and the Technical University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Maria Talento is a Statistician of the Economic and Environment Section of the Statistics Division in ESCAP, who is in charge of disaster-related statistics, and other work areas on System of Environment-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and review of National Statistical Systems.  Prior to joining ESCAP in 2019, she worked at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) as Chief of the Programs, Policy and Advocacy Division (PPAD); the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) as Chief in the Economic Statistics Office handling National Accounts and Environment-Economic Accounts; and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Statistical Coordination Office, as Economic Development Analyst for the  Monitoring of Economic and Social Indicators System Project. She holds an MSc degree in Natural Resources Management at the ITC, Universiteit Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands.

Michael Nagy works as Statistician at the UNECE Statistical Division where he is responsible for the work streams on environment statistics, SEEA and disaster-related statistics. Before joining UNECE 6 years ago he was Head of the Section on Environment Statistics of the Qatar Statistics Authority. Michael also worked for more than 12 years at the Austrian Environment Agency as expert for water management, environment statistics, environmental-economic accounting and management of environmental information. He has a master's degree on landscape design and planning of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna.

Timothy Wilcox is based in Bangkok, and currently leads the Sendai Framework Monitoring in the Asia Pacific region, and is the manager of UNDRR activities in South-East Asia and Private Sector resilience in Asia.  He was also the former Head of Office for UNDRR’s Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific based in Suva, Fiji for five years.

Prior to UNDRR, he served in the Australian Public Service for 13 years and was posted to the Australian High Commission in Fiji as Disaster Risk Management Team Leader managing Australian disaster mitigation, response and recovery efforts in the Pacific, and in the Australian Aid Program managing humanitarian policy, disaster risk reduction, and regional pandemic and health programs in both Asia and Pacific regions.

Familiar with the diverse challenges of natural hazards and disasters, he also served for seven years in the emergency services in both Canberra and Brisbane in Australia. He holds post-graduate qualifications in Emergency Management from Florida State University, a Masters of Human Services with Honours, and a Bachelor of Social Work.  He is also a full member of the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) and the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM).

Sara Duerto Valero is the Regional Advisor on Gender Statistics in UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, where she manages the Flagship Programme Initiative “Making Every Woman and Girl Count.” Besides planning and implementing interventions to support the quality, availability and use of gender statistics across Asia and the Pacific, she provides technical advice and prepares analytical materials on gender statistics. Before joining the regional office, she worked as a statistics specialist in UN Women’s Headquarters. Previously, Sara was a statistician at the Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat (UNSD), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP-SD), and UNESCO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. She holds a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and a graduate degree on Business from the Universidad de Zaragoza.

Amin Shamseddini is Programme Officer at the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) of ESCAP since September 2019. Amin has extensive work experience in the field of disaster risk reduction with various offices within the United Nations System in the Asia and Pacific region including ESCAP’s ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, UNDRR and UNDP. Amin Shamseddini has a BSc in Water Engineering, MSc in Natural Disaster Management and currently, he is a PhD candidate on Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation and Management at the Asian Institute of Technology.

Puji Pujiono is currently the Senior Adviser to the TWG on Disaster-Related Statistics in Asia and the Pacific of ESCAP, where he previously was one of the drivers of the Expert Group that developed the Disaster-Related Statistical Framework (DRSF). Concurrently, he is also Chairperson of the Task Force on Disaster Statistics and the Environment, Indonesian Statistics Society, an oversight and advisory body to the National Statistical System where he continues developing the Indonesia One Disaster Data. His previous positions with various UN agencies include Senior Programme Officer in the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Centre; Regional Adviser on disaster risk reduction and other senior positions in disaster management, emergency and humanitarian response. He is also known to be one of the powers behind the development of the ASEAN Regional Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response and the Indonesian Disaster Management Legislation. A social worker by education and profession, Puji holds a Doctoral Degree in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines.