A new report from OCHA explores how new communications technologies are already changing the face of disaster response. “Humanitarianism in the Network Age” (HINA) examines the implications for how a world of increasingly informed, connected and self-reliant communities will affect the delivery of humanitarian aid. It lays out some of the most pertinent features of …
Recent research on automatic analysis of social media data during disasters has given insight into how to provide valuable and timely information to formal response agencies—and members of the public—in these safety-critical situations. For the most part, this work has followed a bottom-up approach in which data are analyzed first, and the target audience’s needs …
Justine MacKinnon from the Standby Task Force discusses Media Monitoring and Mapping in support of UN-OCHA’s response to Typhoon Yolanda. Working with the Digital Humanitarian Network & wonderful volunteers from around the world to examine over 60 different hashtags on twitter, they collected over 1 million tweets that were then thrown to the crowd via …
Background In 1975, the newly formed Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Co-ordinator (UNDRO) (a predecessor of UNOCHA) led the first UN study of Shelter After Disaster. This research project investigated the issues of sheltering after a disaster and published a series of practical guidelines for assisting groups that included UN agencies, governments and …
As part of the ongoing close collaboration between OCHA and QCRI, regular conversations on how to improve crisis computing have taken place over the past few years. In May 2014, members of OCHA and QCRI met in Doha to discuss our ongoing efforts and recognized that it is clear that innovations in policy were equally important as innovations in humanitarian technology. …
Since the year 2000, almost 1 million people have lost their lives to disasters caused by natural hazards. 2 billion people have been affected. 1 trillion dollars in damage was caused. Every one dollar spent on preparing for disasters could save seven dollars in response. Yet, the international community is spending only 1% of aid …