The ICT4Peace Foundation is pleased to note the progress in the population of the Common Operational Datasets (CODs) and Fundamental Operational Datasets (FODs) by UN OCHA, a process led by Kristina Mackinnon. Since 2010, the Foundation has supported the hosting of these vital datasets for use amongst the global humanitarian community.

The Common Operational Datasets (CODs) are critical datasets that are used to support the work of humanitarian actors across multiple sectors. They are considered a de facto standard for the humanitarian community and should represent the best-availble datasets for each theme. The Fundamental Operational Datasets (FODs) are datasets that are relevent to a humanitarian operation, but are more specific to a particular sector or otherwise do not fit into one of the seven COD themes.

The CODs and FODs were developed by the UN Agencies and NGOs under the leadership of OCHA and are also one of the central parts of the UN Secretary General’s Ban Ki-Moon Crisis Information Management Strategy (CiMS) (see his report to the UN General Assembly in fall 2010: A/65/491 Page, 38 and here).

Download the October 2013 update from here. The report includes feedback from users.