ICT4Peace: An International Process for Crisis Management
The challenge
There is an increasing recognition amongst the international community, including governments, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations agencies that the timely collection and exchange of accurate and impartial information during humanitarian crises requires mayor improvements. Such improvements could contribute to save thousands of lives and requires the sustained commitment of the international community to effective management of information and knowledge, by using appropriate technologies, including Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). Used appropriately, ICTs can support all aspects and sectors of humanitarian work. While initiatives have been launched to mainstream ICTs in humanitarian aid and peacebuilding, none have been able to gain traction at the United Nations, intergovernmental and interagency level. What this process proposes is precisely that – by harvesting existing best practices, recognizing and nurturing innovation and facilitating an international recognition of the important links between effective humanitarian response and the use of ICTs.
Crisis management is defined, for the purposes of this process, as civilian and/or military intervention in a crisis that may be a violent or non-violent with the intention of preventing a further escalation of the crisis and facilitating its resolution. This definition covers peace mediation and peace-keeping activities of the international community. In order to bridge the fragmentation between various organizations and actors during different phases of crises, ICT4Peace promotes holistic, cohesive and collaborative mechanisms directly in line with Paragraph 36 of the WSIS Tunis Commitment:
“36. We value the potential of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict which, inter alia, negatively affects achieving development goals. ICTs can be used for identifying conflict situations through early-warning systems preventing conflicts, promoting their peaceful resolution, supporting humanitarian action, including protection of civilians in armed conflicts, facilitating peacekeeping missions, and assisting post conflict peace-building and reconstruction.”
ICT4Peace raises awareness about the Tunis Commitment and promotes its practical realization in all stages of crisis management.
Objectives
ICT4Peace aims to enhance the performance of the international community in crisis management through improved interagency collaboration and interoperability supported by ICT tools. In order to achieve the forgoing, ICT4Peace intends to: - raise awareness about the contribution and potential of ICT in crisis management
- foster exchange of best practices in the field of ICT for crisis management
- contribute to the establishment of broad principles derived from operational best practices, help integrate them into UN processes and make ICT part of UN evaluation exercises.
Activities carried out so far:
- In-depth research on the role of ICT and information management in preventing, responding to and recovering from conflict (see report: http://www.ict4peace.org/articles/ict4peace_ebook.pdf )
- Negotiation and adoption of Paragraph 36 of the WSIS Tunis Commitment.
- Setting up of ICT4Peace Foundation including website and Contributions to the Peace.it publication by the Crisis Management Initiative: http://www.ict4peace.org/articles/PeaceIT_1_2007.pdf and http://ict4peace.org/view_blog_posts-1-v-119.html
- Establishment of an ICT4Peace Informal Policy advisory Board under the Chairmanship of President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland: http://www.ict4peace.org/people-1.html
- Launching of partnership between DESA Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) and ICT4Peace Foundation: ICT4Peace Foundation appointed as leader of GAID community of practice of ICT4Peace.
- Expert meeting: under the Chairmanship of President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, a group of experts from the UN, international civil society, business and academia met in March 2007 to identify key challenges of and solutions to existing ICT mechanisms on conflict management. Launching of collaborative research of best practices by CMI, ISCRAM, ICT4Peace Foundation, Interpeace Alliance.
- Launch of ICT4Peace inventory wiki: A global database of ICT in crisis management, humanitarian aid and peacebuilding (http://inventory.ict4peace.org)
- Launch of partnership between the ICT4Peace Foundation and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) through the Global Symposium +5 ‘Information for Humanitarian Action’ event and the ICT4Peace: An International Process for Crisis Management process (http://www.reliefweb.int/symposium )
Next Steps:
- Meeting at the United Nations, New York on 15th November 2007 to launch the ICT4Peace initiative and introduce it to an international range of stakeholders.
- Organization of a panel and workshops to illustrate and discuss case studies and best practices of using ICT in crisis management and promoting peace in January 2008.
- Presentation of a report on the current state of interoperability and ICTs in conflict mitigation by spring 2008, including opportunities and challenges for ICT4Peace, as well as further recommendations for intergovernmental and/or interagency processes, based on further consultations with relevant stakeholders.
Guiding questions for ICT4Peace:
- How has the use of ICT helped in promoting peace? How has misuse of ICT hampered crises management?
- How can we enable a greater degree of cohesion, transparency and accountability to processes of conflict transformation? Can ICT augment existing stakeholder interventions and enable marginalized actors to participate more fully in crisis management?
- Establishing computers and Internet connections is insufficient if the technology is not used effectively, if people are discouraged from using it or if local economies and patterns of access cannot sustain long-term application. How do we make sure that a strong political will supports these transformations? How do we make sure that technology is used effectively (how do we train and educate people in the use of ICT)? How do we assure that the financial resources needed to sustain long-term use of ICT are assured?
- How do ICT contribute to enhance inter-agency interoperability and collaboration within the international community (UN system, EU/EC efforts etc) in order to improve peace-keeping, conflict prevention and crisis management?
- How do we promote information-sharing in places of conflict and/or crises?
Publications:
http://www.ict4peace.org/articles/ict4peace_ebook.pdf
http://www.ict4peace.org/library-1.html
Partners:       
Crisis Management Initiative
UN DESA
GAID
Interpeace
ISCRAM
InfoShare
UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs For more information, please contact Daniel Stauffacher, Chairman, ICT4Peace Foundation danielstauffacher@ict4peace.org |
