In late July 2013, Mark Dalton, the Chief of UN OCHA’s Information Services Branch officially wrote to the ICT4Peace Foundation to thank the Foundation’s support and intellectual input, over many years, towards the strengthening of the humanitarian community, including the V&TC community.
Speaking of the Foundation’s support in setting up the platform to host the COD/FOD datasets, Mr. Dalton avers,
Two years later, I’m happy to report that the impact of the Registry has been significant in focussing the attention of both OCHA and our partners on the importance of common reference in humanitarian crises. These datasets now form the basis for a shared understanding of humanitarian needs and the collective response to those needs.
Mr. Dalton goes on to note,
We have been very appreciative of ICT4Peace’s ongoing support to the V&TC with specific financial support to enable the Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN) simulation last October in Washington DC. Such events, especially for geographically distributed volunteer based entities, can be a great event to form and build stronger relationships in the communities thereby enabling more and faster collaboration in future emergencies.
Read the letter in full here.