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Sanjana Hattotuwa, Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation, was part of a panel looking at ICTs and risk management at the IDRC Global Risk Forum held recently in Davos, Switzerland. The so-called Red Chair interview was an opportunity for panelists and speakers to briefly share their thoughts on video. Sanjana’s submission was recorded just after the conclusion of a panel on ICTs in disaster and crisis management, anchored to the following description,
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have an enormous impact on the way public and private actors gather and share information, regulate access to relevant knowledge, and communicate with each other. Effectively applied within society, government, or aid organisations, ICT can significantly contribute to risk reduction and disaster management (early warning, crisis management, loss estimates, etc.), and can serve as a tool to cope with poverty and foster sustainable development. On the other hand, the growing dependencies of public governance and private sector operations on ICT has generated new types of risks that potentially undermine security, privacy and stability in many areas. How can ICT be applied as a tool for improved risk reduction and disaster management? What is the relevance of public private partnerships? How can resilience in ICT be improved?