Humanitarian Information Systems and Emergencies in the Greater Horn of Africa: Logical Components and Logical Linkages

Abstract

Natural and man-made emergencies are regular occurrences in the Greater Horn of Africa region. The underlying impoverishment of whole populations is increasing, making it more difficult to distinguish between humanitarian crises triggered by shocks and those resulting from chronic poverty. Shocks and hazards can no longer be seen as one-off events that trigger a one-time response. In countries that are both poor and exposed to frequent episodes of debilitating drought or chronic conflict, information needs tend to be different from the straightforward early warning/commodity accounting models of information systems that have proven reliable in past emergencies. This paper describes the interdependent components of a humanitarian information system appropriate for this kind of complex environment, noting the analytical links between the components and operational links to programme and policy. By examining a series of case studies from the Greater Horn region, the paper demonstrates that systems lacking one or more of these components will fail to provide adequate information--and thus incur humanitarian costs. While information always comes with a cost, the price of poor information--or none--is higher. And in situations of chronic vulnerability, in which development interventions are likely to be interspersed with both safety nets and emergency interventions on a recurrent basis, investment in improved information is a good investment from both a humanitarian and a financial viewpoint.

Applying Resilience Thinking to Questions of Policy for Pastoralist Systems: Lessons from the Gabra of Northern Kenya

“…Without doing any of the above analysis, one could arrive at straightforward indicators that in some way provide an assessment of the current state of pastoralist livelihoods in northern Kenya. For instance, some of the types of data that the Famine Early Warning Systems Network relies onsuch as changes in food and livestock prices (Famine Early Warning System 2000;Maxwell and Watkins 2003)-indicate effects of shocks and stresses working through a social-ecological system, but do not describe how the effects occurred. Are many households now relying on relief food because traditional restocking mechanisms failed, because entire herds of livestock have been stolen, because pastures are degraded, or because of some combination of these factors?…”

“…Some relevant information sources are available, for example, from drought monitoring and famine early warning systems. However, these kinds of humanitarian information systems (HISs) are limited in scope (Maxwell and Watkins 2003). Humanitarian information systems have had a number of problems: they often focus narrowly on one set of variables while ignoring others, measure hazards and impacts without providing insights into the chain of causation, give insufficient attention to causal factors, and provide their warnings too late (Buchanan-Smith and Davies 1995;Dilley and Boudreau 2001;Maxwell and Watkins 2003).…”

“…However, these kinds of humanitarian information systems (HISs) are limited in scope (Maxwell and Watkins 2003). Humanitarian information systems have had a number of problems: they often focus narrowly on one set of variables while ignoring others, measure hazards and impacts without providing insights into the chain of causation, give insufficient attention to causal factors, and provide their warnings too late (Buchanan-Smith and Davies 1995;Dilley and Boudreau 2001;Maxwell and Watkins 2003). More to the point, HISs tend to be designed for specific purposes such as providing government and non-governmental relief agencies with some level of early warning that a crisis in imminent, and tend to be very focused; they are not designed for dealing with the dynamics and complexity of social-ecological systems (Berkes et al 2003).…”

Community Building with Co-located Social Media

“…From the perspective of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), technologies are implemented to more e ectively perform crucial duties, such as registering incoming refugees as well as providing services and protection [2,36]. As other aid agencies use this information as well, some of the primary goals lie in improving the delivery of information and resources to diverse and dispersed communities [11,15].…”

The East African Food Crisis: Did Regional Early Warning Systems Function?,

“…The three other regional early warning systems did not. Without analysis and forecasting in a timely manner, early warning systems are not useful (20). It is unclear why GIEWS did not provide timely warnings about the upcoming humanitarian disasters.…”