Home | CDAC Network. New communication tools and disaster-affected communities. The use of social media and new technologies in disaster and crisis situations will likely be framed forevermore as ‘Before Haiti’ (BH) and ‘After Haiti’ (AH). The terrible earthquakes that devastated the country and the resulting flood of humanitarian interventions that followed mark the moment that the world woke up to the role that new technology and new media can and do play in the immediate local response to a crisis as well as the ongoing emergency response once international volunteers and aid organizations arrive to the scene. ‘Still left in the dark? How people in emergencies use communication to survive — and how humanitarian agencies can help,’ is a new policy briefing by BBC Media Action. It does a fantastic job of highlighting the ways that new media is changing disaster response and the fact that the humanitarian industry is not doing enough to keep pace.
Another recommendation I found very useful was ‘think of the whole population, not just beneficiaries.’ Like this: Community Communication. What is CDAC? | Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities - Haiti. IRIN on aid communications. An IFRC programme focused on providing disaster response training to volunteers Disaster-struck communities less dependent on aid groups 32% of people in Asia-Pacific have Internet access Social media’s capacity to self-correct New partnerships boost communication projects BANGKOK, 28 May 2013 (IRIN) - Whether it is Twitter or Sina Weibo (a Chinese Twitter-like microblog), YouTube or Facebook, neighbours or friends, the multiplicity of information outlets is shifting power from aid agencies to disaster-affected communities, according to a recently launched UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report Humanitarianism in the Network Age .
“Technology is profoundly changing the nature of disaster response for many reasons, but perhaps most importantly, because it is changing the way that people themselves respond to disasters,” said Imogen Wall, coordinator of communications with affected communities for OCHA. Accountability Technology’s limits Not enough outreach. Communications in Emergencies. Haiti shows why poor communication stalls relief –report. BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Aid agencies working in Haiti need to do a better job of talking and listening to the people they are trying to help in order to boost relief efforts and dissipate tensions, experts say. In the report by infoasaid, a UK government-funded network of media organisations and aid groups focused on improving communication with disaster-affected communities, experts spoke to dozens of Haitians and foreign aid workers.
They assessed how the international aid community and local media delivered information and received feedback to and from Haitians after the January 2010 earthquake and ensuing cholera outbreak. “The largest gap remains the lack of any kind of systemic approach either to sharing information or to listening, gathering feedback or collecting and responding to complaints,” the report said. “We’re starting to get aid agencies getting to grips with these issues but there’s still a long way to go. Aid agencies also failed to support local media in general. Is there an App for “human development”?
Information Technology and “Development” 04/04/2011 at 2:21 pm A few years ago, Irish Aid asked us to nominate NGO representatives for a new “Task Force” on Information Technology for Development. And frankly, we were struggling to find anyone in the Irish Development NGO sector who would take the issue seriously. The prevailing attitude seemed to be that NGOs had no business getting involved with “computer stuff“, in a world where very few people were literate, let alone had access to a reliable electricity source. The “digital divide“, many NGO workers were arguing, was something to worry about after the other divides – food security, gender discrimination, education, health care, you name it – were bridged.
(see also this great infographic about internet use in Africa) Much has changed since, and stories abound of how mobile telephony and information technologies are transforming not just people’s lives, but entire economies and political regimes. Think Egypt 2011. And Dóchas has not sat still either. Like this: Like Loading... Open Data, Mobiles and Development. 28/04/2011 at 4:36 pm By Hans Zomer Ireland, like many other EU countries, has signed onto the IATI standards for aid transparency. This means that the Government has committed to publish information about Irish Aid programmes (and by extension, of Irish NGO programmes) in line with the IATI standard. IATI was launched in September 2008 in Accra, Ghana, and brings together donor countries, developing country governments, non-governmental organisations and experts in aid information to agree ways of sharing more and better information about aid.
The IATI standards include: IATI will thus create a platform for the sharing of information about international development assistance, and contribute to the development of an Open Data system on aid. According to a definition I found on the web, “open data” are any form of knowledge provided under the following conditions: Like this: Like Loading... Entry filed under: Development Effectiveness, NGOs. ICT & Development.