Mega Catastrophes/Large Scale Natural Hazards

1. Mega Catastrophes /
Large Scale Natural Hazards
Dag Nielsen, Senior Advisor
ICT4Peace Foundation
IDRC Davos 2010
Davos, 1 June 2010
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2. Disaster Management today
• Lots of communication and
IT tools, but …
• Limited content e.g. maps,
HIC, Reliefweb, IRIN
• Training, mainly on use of
hardware and software –
not content
• Some training on peace
keeping
• New technology not easiely
available
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3. Some good practice
• GSM network in Kabul
• Early warning systems
• Tampere Convention
• GooB – Governance out of
a Box
• Banda Aceh after the
tsunami
• Muzaffarabad earthquake
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4. ICT Gaps in Crises and Disaster
Management
• No clear mandate and
communication lines
between organizations and
actors
• One CIM and coordination
• Mapping of the total
information needs
• Content, Connectivity,
Access
• ICT Support to victims
• Applications exist but are
not used
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5. Disaster management
• Chaos - First week
• Organized Chaos - Next
three weeks
• More organized - After a
month
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6. Why Disaster
management
• To save life
• Limit environmental
damage
• Limit financial loss
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7. Actors in Disasters
Citizens
3.
1. • Ethnic groups
International • Civil society
Local
organizations
community • Religious groups
on site
2. 4. Beneficiaries
Local International • Victims
Government organizations • IDPs and refugees
and actors / outside
NGOs disaster area
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8. Local Community in
disasters
• They are on Site
• Save most lives
• Most hit by environmental and
financial consequences
Available tools
• Mobile phones
• Radio
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9. “Saffron Revolution” in Myanmar in
2007
• 100,000 people joined a Facebook
group supporting the monks
• No international TV crews allowed in
the country
• Mobile phone cameras were the first
footage of the monks protest
• Blogs from Rangoon were the only
sources of information
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10. Power of SMS
• “My name is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from Dagahaley refugee
camp in Dadaab. Dear Sir, there is an alarming issue here. People are given
too few kilogram of food. You must help.”
• “Found 5 of my friends, 2 dead. Of the 5, 4 are back in Colombo. The last
one is stranded because of a broken bridge. Broken his leg. But he's alive.”
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11. New ways of communicating and
understanding
• Information and Communications Technologies
• Web 2.0 | Twitter | Flickr | YouTube
• Mobiles | SMS | MMS | Mobile video
• Email
• VoIP
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12. Thank you!
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