Information Management for Effective Emergency Response

What is Information Management The term ‘information management’ covers ‘the various stages of information processing from production to storage and retrieval to dissemination towards the better working of an organization; information can be from internal and external sources and in any format.’ Within this generic definition, there are various types and purposes of IM; the focus of these Guidelines is on IM in the context of inter-agency coordination and decision making with regard to humanitarian crises.

Principles of Humanitarian Inoformation Management and Exchange Impartiality Humanity Timeliness Sustainability Reliability Reciprocity Confidentiality Accessibility Inclusiveness Inter-operability Accountability Verifiability Relevancy

The Information Management Cycle

The Virtuous Cycle of Information Exchange

Benefits of Information Management Improves capacity of stakeholders for analysis and decision-making through strengthened info collection, processing, interpretation & dissemination Ensures humanitarian actors are working with complementary information & baseline data (relevant, accurate & timely) Data collected during emergencies also benefits early recovery, recovery, development and disaster preparedness Information is the foundation on which decision- making for a coordinated response is based

IM responsibilities in emergencies Responsibility for IM for effective and coordinated intra-cluster response = Cluster Lead Agencies Responsibility for IM for effective and coordinated inter-cluster response = OCHA

IM Responsibilities of Cluster Leads Allocate human and financial resources for IM Appoint IM focal point Contribute to inter-cluster IM coordination, support coherence between intra and inter cluster IM initiatives Ensure adherence to global norms, policies, standards Work with OCHA to establish systems/processes needed for effective info-sharing with cluster partners Generate cluster info (contact lists, meeting minutes, policy, technical guidance, datasets, needs/gap analysis) Establish confidentiality and privacy policy within cluster Ensure information is age and sex disaggregated where appropriate

IM Responsibilities Produce standardized info products: -------------------------------------------- 2010-05-07 10:43:40 Presenter NB: OCHA will allocate appropriate IM resources, according to the nature and scope of each emergency. IM Responsibilities Produce standardized info products: Contact directories of humanitarian partners Meeting schedules, agendas and minutes of meetings Who does What Where (3W) database and maps Documents situation (mission reports, assessments, etc) Inventory of common cluster data sets Situation Reports Mapping products Provide minimum services for clusters including: Space for humanitarian community to access info resources Geospatial data and analysis for inter-cluster decision making Management of collection and dissemination of inter-cluster info Advocacy for data and info-sharing within humanitarian community Technical IM advice to clusters on design for needs assessments Cross-cluster needs/gap analysis based on info provided by clusters

Presenter 2010-05-07 10:43:41 20 000 visitors a day Reliefweb Stats: -------------------------------------------- +150 documents and maps posted daily from 2500 sources 300 000 documents & maps dating back to 1981 languages daily page views: 100,000 - 300,000

Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) Standardized collection, processing, & dissemination of information Complements IM capabilities of national authorities and in-country humanitarian actors Only deployed in emergencies that exceed capacity of government and partners to respond with IM capacity Guided by principles of accessibility, inclusiveness, inter-operability, accountability, verifiability, relevance, objectivity, neutrality, humanity, timeliness, & confidentiality ***Common service for the humanitarian community***

Contacts Richard Sennoga Education Sector Information Management Officer Education in Emergencies Working Group - Nigeria Seconded by iMMAP Inc., www.immap.org rsennoga@immap.org, rsennoga@unicef.org, richsenoga@gmail.com Tel. +234 708 459 8000, +234 908 784 9251 Skype - richsenoga