Internews' project Integrating Local Media and Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) into Humanitarian Response in the Central African Republic (CAR) was an project aimed at improving emergency response, community participation and community resilience. This report presents the final refl
...
ections of the monitoring and evaluation process that accompanied the implementation of the project.
more
"Internews' project to integrate local media and ICTs into humanitarian response in CAR takes place in a context of distrust between journalists and humanitarians. According to this report, humanitarians view the media as lacking credibility, depth, independence and fairness, and as monetizing news
...
coverage. Journalists say that humanitarians are unwilling to engage in an exchange of information other than a one-way “infomercial.” As one journalist puts it, “they are only interested in their own publicity, but fear critical coverage.” However, both journalists and humanitarians agree on one key factor that undermines the quality of the information: the lack of resources. The use of ICT has the potential to fundamentally alter the relation by constantly bringing new and reliable data to humanitarians, demonstrating the effectiveness and usefulness of journalists. However, Internews' program must also include simple efforts at rebuilding trust between the actors." (Executive summary)
more
"This report documents the findings, analysis and recommendations regarding key aspects of humanitarian communications gleaned from an assessment conducted in the aftermath of the 2010 and 2011 monsoon floods in Pakistan. The aim of the assessment was to assess communities' access to information aft
...
er the floods and to analyse gaps in communications during the rollout of the Citizen Damage Compensation Program (CDCP), launched by the Government of Pakistan. This report also enabled IOM and other stakeholders to extract learning and good practices for communicating with disaster affected communities in the event of an emergency." (http://cdac.trust.org)
more
"Despite the massive uptake of mobile phones by agricultural producers, there are few quantitative studies that provide hard evidence of a link between technology and poverty reduction. Those studies that have explored this, however, found that farmer access to market information through radio, mobi
...
le phones and internet resulted in higher farm-gate prices and a better bargaining position with local traders. To make good on the promise of ICT transformation, however, the paper suggests that organizations from the public and private sectors will need to create new types of partnerships and business networks with the millions of smallholder farmers in the developing world. Some general recommendations for ensuring these technologies contribute to sustainable and equitable development include: promote investment policies that give communications companies incentives to cross subsidize investments from higher profit areas to expand infrastructure into less commercial rural areas; support income levies within the commercial communications markets so that a percentage of profit is made available for public goods services; in more remote areas combine wireless technologies with electrical power sources that can be used by communities to support other vital sectors, such as health and education; promote and support the development of content in local languages to improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of ICT applications." (Executive summary)
more
"SMS services have become a very efficient tool to warn people of health threats such as epidemics or water pollution, but smartphones can also be utilised to stream information in the opposite direction when they are used as tools for snap surveys. In both emergency settings and well-planned nation
...
al surveys, questionnaires on smartphones can replace traditional paper forms and transmit answers directly from the field to a centrally placed server for immediate analysis. This report documents the experience of such a survey that was piloted in Zimbabwe by a local NGO, the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre (HIFC)." (Page 2)
more
"Since the Bihar flooding, First Response India has gone on to train other teams in disaster radio response. Its aim is to equip other teams across India with the skills needed to improve collaboration and communication with people affected by crisis. Radio can also play a key role in other phases o
...
f the disaster. This was demonstrated in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake where radio was used in a variety of ways during the rehabilitation stage. Broadcasts included interviews with experts on stress management, medical treatment and dealing with after shocks. Community members spoke on tolerance, promoting dialogue (following outbreaks of violence in the community). Radio also has a role to play in mitigation and in reducing communities’ vulnerabilities to disasters. This is part of Feba’s community radio strategy. Feba has provided two rural community stations in Nepal with suitcase studios and training, which they use for community based programming – including health, sanitation, governance, rights, local music and dialogue. Effective communication and information flow has the potential to transform communities and save lives. In the disaster context, this potential can only be realized if accurate and timely information is combined with effective communication at all stages of the disasters and between all players. In the right hands, radio can be a powerful tool to help this process. It can provide a voice and a platform for the people who, ironically, are often not included or consulted in the humanitarian response – the affected community." (Conclusion, page 3)
more
"In 2008, a BBC World Service Trust policy briefing argued that people affected by earthquakes, floods or other emergencies often lacked the information they needed to survive and that this only added to their stress and anxiety. Left in the Dark: the unmet need for information in humanitarian emerg
...
encies maintained that humanitarian agencies were increasingly effective and coordinated in getting food, water, shelter and medical help to people affected by disasters, but were neglecting the need to get often life-saving information to them. Much has changed since 2008. Thanks to the efforts of several humanitarian and media support Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the report helped to galvanise momentum across the humanitarian sector to prioritise communication with the populations it serves. While many humanitarian agencies continue to see communication as something that is done to raise money or boost the profile of their disaster relief efforts, the sector is, increasingly, seeing the need for a clear strategic focus that responds to the information and communication needs of those affected by disaster. There is also a growing recognition of the benefi ts of such communication to improve programming and the overall emergency response." (Introduction)
more
"Audience segmentation is generally associated with strategic communication (such as advertising and public relations), where content is manipulated to suit reader preferences. News has generally been considered truth-telling unvarnished by such concerns. This article compares how news of the same h
...
umanitarian crisis [in Darfur, Sudan] was designed by 10 news organizations in seven countries for different market segments. Comparisons showed statistically significant differences in representation, influenced in part by what the audience-market was. Like advertising, news seemed to share an attribute with the strategic design of advertising and public relations. Increasingly carried online, news will be vulnerable to click-based customization of content like advertising is, taking us beyond currently observed geopolitical influences on segmentation to advertiser and market-based differences." (Abstract)
more
"In the immediate aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the CDAC (Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities) Network undertook its first ever ground initiative. This initiative, which came to be known as CDAC Haiti, was funded largely through the OCHA’s ERRF with some additiona
...
l short-term funding in 2011 from the global CDAC Network and the World Health Organisation (WHO). In total, CDAC Haiti received US $615,000. This Learning Review aims to document CDAC Haiti’s activities, assess achievements, and contribute knowledge about what worked, what didn’t, and why. A key component of the Review is the identification of lessons from this ‘new’ area of humanitarian coordination that can be drawn for other emergency operations." (Page iv)
more
"Starting in 2005, Internews built three humanitarian radio stations in Eastern Chad to help those fleeing the violence in Darfur to receive the critical news and information they needed to survive. Seven years after the first station went on air, Internews has left eastern Chad as funding to intern
...
ational agencies has significantly reduced. Internews has spent the past year preparing the stations for independence, including establishing rent-free premises, community governing boards and marketing strategies. This report is a result of the work of of journalist Celeste Hicks and photographer Meredith Kohut who spent a month with the stations in July 2012 to document the past seven years – and what the future holds as these enormously popular stations strike out on their own." (Internews website)
more
"Social media and social networking sites (SNS) in particular have become popular in current humanitarian campaigns. This article assesses the optimism surrounding the opportunities that SNS communication offers for humanitarian action and for the cultivation of cosmopolitan sensibilities. In order
...
to evaluate the mediation of suffering and humanitarian causes through social media, I argue that we need to understand the architectures of social media and SNS in addition to analysing the content of the campaigns drawing on the literature on humanitarian communication. Focusing on the analysis of two humanitarian campaigns through social media, the phenomenally popular and controversial Kony 2012 campaign and WaterForward, the article observes that the architectures of SNS orientate action at a communitarian level which heightens their post-humanitarian style. However, an emerging new genre of reporting and commenting which is termed “polymedia events” can potentially extend beyond the limitations of SNS communication by opening up the space for reflexivity and dialogical imagination." (Abstract)
more
"Internews surveyed more than 120 Syrian refugees in Zaatari camp, asking a set of 30 questions about information needs, sources, and trust levels. Additionally, 20 in-depth key informant interviews were conducted with humanitarian workers and media professionals in Jordan and in Beirut, Lebanon. As
...
per the rapid assessment, many refugees in the camp are frustrated by their increasing ignorance of their current situation, the lack of adequate access to news and information about the situation in Syria, the quality of services available in the camp, and the lack of information about the very same services available. First and foremost, refugees demand news and information about Syria. This is followed by the need to know how to access basic services particularly with regard to water, food and new shelter (i.e. caravans). Residents also want to know information about their general situation in the camp. The overwhelming majority of refugees affirmed satellite TV was the source of information they trusted the most when there were at home in Syria – Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Arabiya being the preferred channels. In Zaatari, TV is the source refugees would like to access for news about Syria as well as for entertainment. After TV, mobile phones and Internet were ranked among the three most trusted sources." (Summary)
more
"Shaw argues that journalism should focus on deconstructing the underlying structural and cultural causes of political violence such as poverty, famine and human trafficking, and play a proactive (preventative), rather than reactive (prescriptive) role in humanitarian intervention." (Publisher descr
...
iption)
more
"Serious communication gaps between the humanitarian sector and refugees in Dadaab, Kenya, are increasing refugee suffering and putting lives at risk. There are clear indications that these information gaps are hampering the aid response and that despite important efforts from individual agencies, c
...
urrent communication strategies for affected communities are not working as effectively as they could, and critical coordination needs to be improved. These are the clear indications from the joint Communications Needs Assessment led by Internews in collaboration with Star FM and Radio Ergo/IMS and with support from NRC. The assessment included an extensive survey of more than 600 refugees in all three of Dadaab’s camps. Overall results from the survey show that large numbers of refugees don’t have the information they need to access basic aid: More than 70% of newly-arrived refugees say they lack information on how to register for aid and similar numbers say they need information on how to locate missing family members. High figures are also recorded for lack of information on how to access health, shelter, how to communicate with family outside the camps and more." (Executive summary, page 4)
more