The ICT4Peace Foundation was a partner in the organisation of the UN OCHA +5 Symposium (see presentation here), which has just released its Final Statement and Outcomes document.

As noted in OCHA Press Release on the occasion of the public release of these two documents:

"It it my great pleasure to provide you with the Global Symposium +5 'Information for Humanitarian Action' Final Statement and its accompanying Outcomes document. These documents represent a common vision of th... continue reading

Daniel Stauffacher, the Chairman of the ICT4Peace Foundation has been invited to participate at the Global forum on Emergency Telecommunications - 10-12 Dec 2007.

BackgroundIncreasingly, natural disasters are causing considerable loss of life and disrupting national economies, severely weakening the affected countries. While neither natural nor man-made hazards can be entirely prevented, information and communication technologies (ICT) can help reduce their impact and avoid them turni... continue reading

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 and experience. Prevention Web will be a reference for experts, practitioners and all people interested in building res... continue reading

Development Gateway has changed significantly in response to external challenges and the emergence of new web-based technologies. Their experience highlights some of the lessons learned in the process that may be relevant for web 2.0 initiatives.With more than 260,000 registered users and 800,000 unique visitors per month in mid-2007, the Development Gateway is the largest searchable repository of development information and tools on the internet.The concept of the Development Gateway was fir... continue reading

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... continue reading

"I come from a professional background – the world of diplomacy – where information and words are absolutely key to everything we do. The collection and analysis of information, questions about with whom to share it – and more importantly sometimes – with whom not to share it, were and are fundamental to understanding and to success. And how this information and analysis was expressed and conveyed – the exact words, the precise nuances, the constructive ambiguity, the hidden as well as the op... continue reading

Watch the presentation by Sanjana Hattotuwa, Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation made at the UN OCHA +5 Symposium here. The original can be streamed off the web here. 

To download a copy of the file, please click here. 

ICT4Peace aims to enhance the performance of the international community in crisis management through the application of information and Communications Technology (ICT) – technologies that can facilitate effective and sustained communication between peoples, communities and stakeholders involved in crisis management. 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 pr... continue reading

A conversation between Colin Rule (Director of ODR at eBay/PayPal) and Ken Banks, founder of kiwanja.net and creator of FrontlineSMS can be found here.

Ken's FrontlineSMS programme allows for new ways through which sensitive information can be disseminated in a timely manner in support of processes as wide ranging as health pandemics to election monitoring and ceasefire monitoring. 

This podcast covers the uses that mobile phone equipped only with basic SMS technology can be util... continue reading

From the New York Times comes an interesting news story on how the junta in Myanmar thwarted the use of the web and Internet by pro-democracy activists. 

It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet.Until Friday television screens and newspapers abroad were flooded with scenes of tens of thousa... continue reading