(Hattotuwa and Stauffacher, March 2010)
The ICT4Peace Foundation released Haiti and beyond: Getting it right in Crisis Information Management in April 2010 – the first critique of a number of others since published since on the deployment of ICTs to help aid and relief efforts in Haiti after the devastating earthquake in January 2010.
As noted in this succinct report,
Much more can and must be done to strengthen disaster preparedness and crisis information management. There are no longer excuses for ill-preparedness or haphazard aid response. We already know much of what needs to be done and going forward requires requisite funding coupled with political will of the UN system and international community. Some key ideas and suggestions in this regard are,
- The accelerated development and population of easily accessible datasets with essential information shared across UN and other aid agencies, to help identify, prepare for and mitigate disasters.
- Developing ICTs that work better in, and are more resilient to austere, traumatic environments.
- Significantly improving interoperability across all systems between UN agencies and other key platforms outside, including UN OneResponse, Ushahidi, Sahana and InSTEDD’s Emergency Information Service.
- Using endogenous technologies, help communities develop their own capacities and capabilities for disaster early warning, prevention and resilience, is vital.
- Greater cooperation between governments and NGOs, based on standard operating procedures governing information sharing to help aid work.
- Global and local business, as we have seen in Haiti, also has a key role to play in generating and sustaining financial inflows and strengthening aid. They need to be partners in crisis information management.
- The development of a comprehensive crisis information management preparedness and assessment tool box, including appraisal mechanisms, especially in and for disaster prone regions and countries.
Reports that echo these recommendations and also the key challenges identified in our report include,
- Haiti Information and Communications Observations: Trip Report for Visit 18 February to 1 March 2010 by Larry Wentz, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Technology and National Security Policy, National Defense University
- US State Department Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) report on Haiti earthquake: Breaking New Ground in the Information Landscape
- Crowdsourcing Crisis Information in Disaster- Affected Haiti, USIP Special Report by Jessica Heinzelman and Carol Waters
Other vital reading and information in this regard include,
- Recording of Live seminar on “ICT and Protection: Can Information and Communication Technology Enhance Humanitarian Action?”
- Recording of Getting it Right in Crisis Management: Going beyond the hype on ICTs at WSIS 2010
- ICT4Peace Foundation enters into new agreement with Ushahidi to develop Crisis Information Management Demonstrator (CIMD)
- Recording of ICTs for Disaster Management High Level Panel discussion at WSIS 2010
- Interview on crisis information management at IDRC Global Risk Forum