Operations and support ~ operational support

Summary

It is nearly impossible to work in the difficult environment of a complex emergency without support from organizational headquarters. This is true for all large organizations, and no less true for field-based ICT projects such as those described above. A number of initiatives have been created specifically to provide this type of support in terms of expertise and resources, using additional ICT capacities to provide technical support to projects in remote locations, as well as more general ongoing forums for specific areas such as GIS and logistics.

Excerpt from The Role of ICT in Preventing, Responding to and Recovering from Conflict, published by the ICT4Peace Foundation.

Resources

The Geographic Information Support Team (GIST)

https://gist.itos.uga.edu/index.asp is a US-funded collaboration among a number of governmental and intergovernmental organizations, with OCHA acting as the secretariat. The GIST works to improve humanitarian response through the improved information flow and presentation, provide a forum for geographic and geo-referenced information and data exchange amongst humanitarian response agencies and donors, and develop and promote the use of techniques and standards to enhance data and information coordination and exchange.

Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU)

http://www.state.gov/s/inr/hiu.

ReliefGuide

http://www.reliefguide.com is an Internet platform that brings together buyers and sellers of relief-relevant products and services to promote deal making. It includes an interactive list of sellers organized by categories and has a facility to make public tenders.

Global Hand

http://www.globalhand.org works in a similar way, but operates on a request basis, aiming to match requirements of organizations (and potentially communities) in the field with private donors.

AidMatrix

http://www.aidmatrix.org is a non-profit that seeks to build partnerships to bring items such as food, clothing, building supplies, medical and educational supplies to people in need during the time of need.

Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU)

http://www.state.gov/s/inr/hiu/

The mission of the Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) is to serve as a U.S. Government interagency center to identify, collect, analyze, and disseminate unclassified information critical to U.S. Government decision-makers and partners in preparation for and response to humanitarian emergencies worldwide, and to promote best practices for humanitarian information management.

To accomplish this mission, the HIU performs the following tasks:

• Identifies key sources of geospatial and georeferenced data best suited to meet the information requirements of our consumers;
• Collects timely, verifiable, and relevant data utilizing an extensive network of information partnerships;
• Analyzes data using multi-agency expertise and applying proven technologies to determine significant trends and relationships; and
• Disseminates information of value to all levels of consumers, from national-level policymakers to operational field managers.

   

The HIU is part of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and receives oversight from a U.S. Government interagency Executive Steering Committee. Its staff  is composed of personnel from the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Defense, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).