Filling the Data Gaps on Every Day and Disaster Risks in Cities: the Case of Ibadan

Abstract

Many cities in sub-Saharan Africa lack official records of deaths and of serious illnesses and injuries from everyday hazards and disaster events at all scales. This is a major limitation to effective planning for risk reduction. This briefing describes how a research team at the University of Ibadan drew on a range of data sources to fill in some glaring official data gaps, including newspaper reports, hospital records and databases of government departments for the period 2000 to 2015. Excluding public health risks for which data are scarce and incomplete, road traffic accidents, crime, violence and flooding constitute the most serious hazards in the city.