In recent years, a drop in poverty, child-mortality, and near-universal primary school enrolment, has accompanied Rwanda’s strong economic growth. Rising temperatures and variable rainfall may threaten these positive trends in the rural, landlocked, and densely populated country, which are likely to affect rain-fed agriculture, hydropower production, malaria transmission rates, and nature-based tourism.

On the steep slopes that dominate much of the country, floods, landslides, and soil erosion are already damaging agriculture, infrastructure, and services. Heavy rains in 2012, for example, led to extensive flooding in the northern and western provinces that caused extensive damage and affected about 11,000 people. In 2016, floods and landslides blocked roads, destroyed bridges, and damaged 1,425 homes in Gakenke district.

Geospatial Information Technology (GIT), now being also called an “enabling technology” due to the benefit it offers across different application domains, can be a very useful tool to support the whole disaster risk management cycle (Prevention/Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery/Reconstruction) as well as the operational planning and decision making of coherent disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities at both national and local scales. Quantifying level risk of expected future losses is a key step in any disaster risk reduction program. In addition, the outputs and scenarios generated from risk assessments contribute to inform overall risk reduction policies and planning. Risk assessment can be performed by applying geospatial methodologies that allow to quantify risk and identify the locations in need of risk reduction measures. The role of GIT does not stop there; in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, satellite based rapid response analysis enables the emergency response agencies to respond in a better and coordinated way.

Technology in its various forms, including Geospatial Information Technology (GIT), continues to redefine and revolutionize the way we all live and work. Harnessing innovation and technology to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment is critical throughout the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The link between technology and women’s rights is clearly reflected in SDG 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women, which includes a specific target on utilizing technology to realize women’s and girls’ empowerment. In addition, according to UNISDR, women are still too often absent from the development of disaster risk reduction strategies and decision-making processes. The Sendai Framework underline women’s participation is critical to effectively managing disaster risk and designing, resourcing and implementing gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction policies, plans and programmes.