Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ISLAMABAD140
2006-01-05 09:01:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Islamabad
Cable title:  

PAKISTAN - EARTHQUAKE: USAID/DART UPDATE ON

Tags:  EAID AEMR ASEC MASS ECON KMDR KPAO OIIP OPRC PGOV PREL PK 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 ISLAMABAD 000140 

SIPDIS

STATE ALSO PASS TO USAID
USAID/W FOR A/AID ANDREW NATSIOS, JBRAUSE
DCHA/OFDA GGOTTLIEB, MMARX, RTHAYER, BDEEMER
AID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA
SOUTH ASIA RESPONSE MANAGEMENT TEAM
SOUTH ASIA EARTHQUAKE TASK FORCE
DCHA/FFP FOR JONATHAN DWORKEN
ANE DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR MARK WARD
BANGKOK FOR OFDA SENIOR REGIONAL ADVISOR TOM DOLAN
KATHMANDU FOR OFDA REGIONAL ADVISOR WILLIAM BERGER
ROME PASS FODAG
GENEVA FOR RMA AND NKYLOH
NSC FOR JMELINE
EUCOM FOR POLA/J3/J4/J5
BRUSSELS FOR USAID PLERNER
NEW YORK FOR TMALY
SECDEF FOR SOLIC/PKHA, USDP/J3
JOINT STAFF WASH DC FOR J3/J4/J5
HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE FOR J3/J5

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID AEMR ASEC MASS ECON KMDR KPAO OIIP OPRC PGOV PREL PK
SUBJECT: PAKISTAN - EARTHQUAKE: USAID/DART UPDATE ON
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT OF RELIEF EFFORT

REF: 05 Islamabad 17853

-------
Summary
-------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 ISLAMABAD 000140

SIPDIS

STATE ALSO PASS TO USAID
USAID/W FOR A/AID ANDREW NATSIOS, JBRAUSE
DCHA/OFDA GGOTTLIEB, MMARX, RTHAYER, BDEEMER
AID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA
SOUTH ASIA RESPONSE MANAGEMENT TEAM
SOUTH ASIA EARTHQUAKE TASK FORCE
DCHA/FFP FOR JONATHAN DWORKEN
ANE DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR MARK WARD
BANGKOK FOR OFDA SENIOR REGIONAL ADVISOR TOM DOLAN
KATHMANDU FOR OFDA REGIONAL ADVISOR WILLIAM BERGER
ROME PASS FODAG
GENEVA FOR RMA AND NKYLOH
NSC FOR JMELINE
EUCOM FOR POLA/J3/J4/J5
BRUSSELS FOR USAID PLERNER
NEW YORK FOR TMALY
SECDEF FOR SOLIC/PKHA, USDP/J3
JOINT STAFF WASH DC FOR J3/J4/J5
HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE FOR J3/J5

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID AEMR ASEC MASS ECON KMDR KPAO OIIP OPRC PGOV PREL PK
SUBJECT: PAKISTAN - EARTHQUAKE: USAID/DART UPDATE ON
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT OF RELIEF EFFORT

REF: 05 Islamabad 17853

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. Effective information management, implemented from the
earliest stages of a natural disaster, can improve the
quality of the humanitarian response. In the Pakistan
earthquake, the UN introduced the cluster system without
providing supporting documentation or comprehensive terms
of reference and without internal information management
capacity. The UN clusters did not prioritize data
collection and information management, and disaster
specific information strategies were not implemented by UN
agencies immediately following the disaster. Information
management at the cluster level remains an ongoing problem,
and the UN's Humanitarian Information Center (HIC),which
is responsible for providing technical advice and promoting
data collection standards for the humanitarian community,
currently does not have the staff or resources to assist.
To strengthen the HIC and more effectively guide cluster-
level management of information vital to relief and
reconstruction efforts, the USAID Disaster Assistance
Response Team (DART) recommends that donors, including

USAID, provide two liaison officers and a Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) specialist in the HIC
specifically to work with the clusters. End summary.

--------------
Importance of Information Management
--------------


2. Effective information management during disasters is
achieved by understanding what information decision-makers
need in order to effectively steer the emergency response.
The process begins with analysis: what do we need to know,
how often do we need to know it, how can this information
be made operational, who is responsible for the data
management, what products will be produced, to whom will it
be reported, what format will we use to collect the data,
who will do the data collection, where will it be done, and
what kind of training will we provide to support this
process? A critical step to managing information
effectively is to prioritize the process early in a
disaster so information management becomes an effective
tool to support decision-making throughout the response.
Lastly, information management strategies should be
developed in advance of disasters and then modified to fit
the circumstances of the disaster rather than being
developed during the course of the disaster.


3. One essential component of information management,
particularly in a disaster, is geo-referenced data used to
build maps that make sense of a chaotic situation. To
determine gaps in coverage, it is essential to understand
which geographical areas are covered and by which
humanitarian agencies. The Pakistan earthquake response
demonstrated the importance for geo-referenced data; the
lack of spatial coordinates for critical locations has
hampered the response. Less than half of the 300 known
displaced person camps (spontaneous and planned) are geo-
referenced. As a result, the humanitarian community does
not have a standard list of the exact locations of each
camp. In a recent shelter survey of 3,000 locations
conducted by the International Organization for Migration
(IOM),which is the head of the Emergency Shelter Cluster,
surveyors did not collect coordinates, making it difficult
to independently verify the results.

-------------- --
Agencies and Organizations Managing Information
-------------- --


4. Presently, several agencies are primarily involved with
information management in the Pakistan Earthquake response:

a) The UN Humanitarian Information Center (HIC) - The HIC
is a common service to the humanitarian community and
provides orientation products including contact lists and
meeting schedules as well as map products. The HIC
initiated and continues to host weekly meetings for GIS
users and information managers to coordinate efforts and
prevent duplication of efforts. During this disaster, the
HIC has been unfairly blamed for not providing information
management for the Clusters. However, although the HIC has
the responsibility for providing technical advice and
promotion of standards for the humanitarian community to
help them manage data and information more effectively, it
is not responsible for data collection and internal
information management within the clusters. That is the
responsibility of the UN cluster heads.

b) UN Cluster Heads - As reported reftel, the UN Cluster
system was introduced in Pakistan without first
establishing internal information management support in the
clusters. As a result, many clusters failed to establish
an effective data collection system for information
management within the cluster. When it became increasingly
apparent that information was needed for decision making,
the clusters initiated several uncoordinated and competing
requests for data several weeks after the earthquake. Some
hubs developed their reporting independently using non-
standardized data collection forms-a situation that
hindered uniform information analysis of all hub data.

c) The UN Joint Logistics Center (UNJLC) - UNJLC is a
common service frequently co-located with the HIC. In
Pakistan, the HIC and UNJLC were not co-located, but had
strong collaboration, particularly among GIS staff. UNJLC
works on pipeline data and provides logical support to the
humanitarian community.

d) ACTED - A USAID-funded international NGO, ACTED set up
and managed an information management and GIS system that
was exemplary in its effectiveness. ACTED has used
information management as part of their operations for
several years. For the Pakistan earthquake, they were able
to bring information management staff from existing
operations in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

e) US Military - The US Military Disaster Assistance Center
(DAC) information managers and GIS specialists coordinate
with the USAID/DART and the humanitarian community and
attend weekly meetings held at the HIC. The DAC has made a
commendable effort to reconcile data and share unclassified
products; unclassified information has been essential since
it is more accessible to a wider audience.

f) USAID/DART - The USAID/DART GIS Coordinator, from the
U.S. Department of State's Humanitarian Information Unit,
worked in an advisory role with the HIC, represented the
USAID/DART at information management meetings, and met with
implementing partners to address information management and
other issues. The USAID/DART collected standardized data
on partner location, activities, coverage of assessed
shelter and emergency relief item needs, commodities in the
pipeline and materials distributed. The international NGOs
were extremely helpful in these exercises. Data was shared
with the HIC and UNJLC.

h) The GOP Federal Relief Commission (FRC) - The FRC hired
an information management consulting firm to install an
operations center at the Prime Minister's Secretariat and
to provide guidance in information management. Although
the operations center was completed, FRC indicated they did
not have funding to staff the center. During meetings at
the FRC, the humanitarian community provided data and
information to the FRC and requested information from the
Pakistani military on their relief activities. The FRC was
unable to provide this, at least partly due to the fact
that each of the three battalions working in the response
use different non-standardized reporting formats. Although
the HIC made a strong effort to resolve this problem, only
summary information has been received from the FRC to date.

--------------
Information Management Gaps and Shortfalls
--------------


5. In early December, the head of the Emergency Shelter
Cluster suggested the creation of a Strategic Information
Cell (SIC) in the HIC to achieve closer integration of data
collection and management. It was proposed that FRC,
UNJLC, and the Emergency Shelter Cluster provide staff.
However, the SIC concept was abandoned by the Emergency
Shelter Cluster head after three weeks of discussion.


6. Several agencies are working to identify and analyze
gaps in the shelter and emergency relief item pipeline. On
November 26, the FRC issued a report that provided some
information regarding the total amount of relief
commodities distributed thus far. The report did not,
however, provide information on what commodities were
available or needed.


7. On December 10, UNJLC asked donors to share emergency
relief item data from their NGOs in order to determine the
amount of emergency relief items in-country and in the
pipeline. The request did not provide a standardized
reporting format so the information returned required
tremendous effort to consolidate. UNJLC entered all of the
information in a Logistics Support Software (LSS) database
to enable analysis. At present, the data entry process is
still ongoing and by the time it is completed, the
information will be dated. Additionally, accuracy of
UNJLC's tracking is an issue as UNJLC relies on
humanitarian agencies to supply and update commodity
information. As UNJLC has not yet instituted a
standardized reporting format, it is likely that they will
continue to receive non-standardized data.

8. Poor information management leads to multiple and non-
coordinated requests that fall heavily on the international
NGOs. Many have complained that it is increasingly
burdensome to try to meet the multiple information requests
from hubs, clusters, donors, and offices such as HIC and
UNJLC.

--------------
Recommendations
--------------


9. There continue to be urgent information management needs
to effectively manage the humanitarian relief operation
through the winter. If not addressed, the lack of
effective management systems and geo-referenced data will
also negatively impact the transition from relief to
reconstruction. At present, there are no information
management officers at the HIC to liaise between the
clusters and the HIC. Based on respective expertise, the
USAID/DART recommends that USAID provide a GIS specialist
and the UK's Department for International Development
(DFID) provide two liaison officers to the HIC to work with
the clusters to improve information management and provide
timely processing of data. The USAID/DART has begun to
discuss this idea with DFID representatives in Islamabad.

CROCKER