"The report focuses on Crisis Communication during the most devastating floods of 2010 ever witnessed in the history of Pakistan in which the death toll of human beings exceeded 2,000 [...] According to the views of various media reporters and natural calamity analysts, unfortunately crisis communic
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ation could not play any effective role in this most crucial time of Pakistan. Interviews carried out with the victims, studies, facts and figures indicate that international response to this natural calamity has been slow and inadequate. Pakistan government’s inability to sustain its grip in tackling this natural calamity is also responsible for the insufficient international reaction. The need of the time is to chalk out immediate rehabilitation programs and long-term planning in order to confront this crisis in the shortest possible time and to counter any similar calamity in future and to prevent it from turning into a long term mishap." (Abstract)
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"This publication is an important contribution to literature on disaster and humanitarian crisis communication. It analyses in detail the response to two major but very different emergencies in Haiti: the 2010 earthquake and, later that year, the outbreak of cholera. While humanitarian agencies stil
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l see 'communication' as primarily the process of delivering or extracting information, for the affected population, the process of communication seems to matter as much as the information itself. The best communication strategies, whether highly localised or nationwide, were those that meshed a number of different communication channels, says this report. However, more coordination is needed, and monitoring and evaluation practice in communication projects was quite weak." (CAMECO Update 1-2012)
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"More than 20 million people in Pakistan were affected by the worst floods in the country’s history in late July 2010 [...] The humanitarian response included efforts to inform people about the services available, and communicate with them about accessing these services. It also included efforts t
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o provide platforms by which people could tell the aid workers about particular help they needed or register complaints about services. However, during the flood response, there was no consistent, broad research that could indicate which communication efforts were most effective. This study is an attempt to start providing this data, and thereby directly support the communication plans and efforts of humanitarian organizations. It assesses the impact of humanitarian information provided to flood-affected populations in Sindh and Punjab three months after the flood, and examines to what degree people received information about help available and how well that information enabled people to get that help and to help themselves." (Executive summary, page 2)
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"The objective of OCHA’s new field information management strategy is to increase support to humanitarian actors by improving the capacity for decision making and analysis through strengthened collection, processing, and dissemination of information. This objective will be met by increasing OCHA
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s IM capacity in Field Offices to strengthen the internal flow and management of information and to provide improved external IM services to its many humanitarian partners. Within the parameters of this strategy, for example: Internal changes include: Mapping and standardizing information flow within OCHA to address the current perception of ‘black holes’ throughout the Office, from which nothing emerges; Standardizing file structures and descriptions so all data can be effectively searched; Introducing a system to regularly and securely back up all field data. External services include: Promoting enhanced information sharing, and providing mechanisms to do so, to improve coordination and analysis; Establishing a minimum standard of products to enhance humanitarian coordination, such as Who Does What Where (W3) databases; Working with partners to standardize, to the extent possible within Agency specific requirements, the collection of data, focusing on geo-referencing and metadata; • Providing database and mapping services to those actors lacking their own capacity." (Page IV)
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"This study breaks the downward communication challenge in post-tsunami Aceh and Sri Lanka into four main areas. The first looks at the nature of communication problems between organisations and communities. The second covers mass information campaigns, including an overview of the information chann
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els in Aceh and Sri Lanka and how best to use them. The third section investigates complaints mechanisms, and, finally, the fourth section is a brief glance at what has been done to bridge information gaps in Aceh and Sri Lanka. Many organisations are still paying for mistakes made in communicating with communities in the early days of the tsunami recovery effort, resulting in what many call the “broken promises” phenomenon. The inherent problems of managing expectations were exacerbated by a widespread use of translators and jargon and the extreme levels of trauma experienced by beneficiaries. A number of organisations, however, have started to address these mistakes and build communications strategies into projects, developing models that potentially have wide application." (Executive summary)
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"The report has two parts. The first, devoted to outbreak experience, describes the special case of outbreaks and the many difficult challenges they present for communicators. It also summarizes presentations during the consultation that looked at recent outbreaks in terms of what they have to say a
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bout effective communication and the consequences of certain errors. The second part translates these experiences into best practices for communication during an outbreak. Contents are organized around five essential practices for effective outbreak communication identified during the consultation: build trust, announce early, be transparent, respect public concerns, and plan in advance." (Page 3)
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