IASC Weekly Meeting - Improving communication with disaster-affected communities
Geneva
Meeting Documents
I. Improving communication with disaster-affected communities
Jon Bugge, Head of infoasaid and founding Chair of CDAC, will brief on how to increase the reach and quality of humanitarian response by improving communication with disaster-affected communities in the preparedness and response. The presentation will discuss, how the projects infoasaid and Communicating to Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) can assist humanitarian agencies and clusters in their communication with disaster-affected communities and thereby increase the effectiveness and accountability of their response. The presentation will provide information about the two projects and identify the synergies among them.
Background
Traditionally aid agencies have focused on providing material supplies to those affected by crises. Experience has shown that when a crisis strikes, people need information as much as they need food, water and shelter. infoasaid seeks to improve how aid agencies communicate with disaster-affected communities. The emphasis is on the need to deliver information, as aid itself, through the most appropriate channels.
infoasaid
The project infoasaid is a consortium of Internews and the BBC World Service Trust, two international media development agencies, and is funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development (DfID). The project delivers tools and resources to build the capacity of aid agencies between emergencies and also mount rapid responses to select emergencies. Upon completion at the end of 2011, infoasaid aims to deliver proof of concept; showing tangible evidence that communications with disaster-affected communities improves the quality and reach of humanitarian response.
CDAC
CDAC operates both as a global network of agencies who advocate for the issue. But also the network was operational in Haiti where it coordinated efforts to communicate with disaster-affected communities.
II. AOB