Prevention Web: a new tool to increase knowledge on disaster risk reduction

The UN/ISDR secretariat is launching PreventionWeb.net, a new website for increasing knowledge sharing on disaster risk reduction (DRR) issues, for both the general public – including media and teachers – and DRR specialists, on 15 November. "Information and knowledge are key to reducing disasters, and this new tool will facilitate the sharing of information, expertise …

New media mantras

The UN +5 OCHA Symposium was another instance where the power of new media (Web 2.0, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, wikis, SMSs and that sort of thing) was repeatedly touted as an innovation that would change the face of humanitarian response as we know it. The heady optimism of a revolution in humanitarian affairs using mobile …

Complex Political Emergencies and humanitarian aid systems design

Missing entirely in the discussions I was part of at the UN OCHA +5 Symposium and also the draft statement current on the Symposium website for public review is the manner in which complex political emergencies  (CPEs, herein used to also cover violent ethno-political conflict) influence the design and deployment of ICT support architectures and …

Humanitarian information systems: Ethics, information protection and “information DNA”

One of the discussions that cropped up in the working group on Innovation and also at the Plenary at the UN OCHA +5 Symposium was the ethics of information sharing in humanitarian aid systems. I for one find it hard to believe that we are bereft of the information needed for timely and sustainable humanitarian …

Innovation in humanitarian aid – Herein lies the future

Linked to UN OCHA +5 Symposium - Where was the innovation?, I thought of listing some practices, technologies and their application in the field that interest me because of their potential for augmenting peacebuilding and conflict transformation, that I believe has broad overlap with the imperatives of humanitarian aid. While none of the examples below …

UN OCHA +5 Symposium – Where was the innovation?

I was part of the UN OCHA +5 Symposium in the capacity of Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation, but these thoughts are my own and don't reflect, in any way, the position of the Foundation.I was part of the Working Group 4 - Innovation to Improve Humanitarian Action looking at: ...the potential of emerging …

Presentation at UN OCHA +5 Symposium

My presentation on Panel 3: Envisioning the Future at the UN OCHA +5 Symposium, October 2007. Click here for a version you can download. Click here for more posts related to the OCHA +5 Symposium and the future of ICTs in humanitarian aid.