UN WORKSHOP ON INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN

UNCLAS NAIROBI 002518

SIPDIS

AIDAC AFDROUGHT

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/E, EPRATT
USAID/W FOR AA/DCHA, WGARVELINK, LROGERS
DCHA/OFDA FOR GGOTTLIEB, AFERRARA, ACONVERY, PMORRIS,
CGOTTSCHALK, CPRATT
DCHA/FFP FOR JDWORKEN
AFR/EA FOR JBORNS, JESCALONA
USUN FOR EMALY
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER
ROME FOR FODAG
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH
NSC FOR TSHORTLEY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PREF SOCI UN XA

SUBJECT: UN WORKSHOP ON INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN
AFRICA


Summary


1. On May 29, the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) convened a three-day
humanitarian information network workshop in Nairobi
focused on Africa-specific concerns. This year's
workshop is a continuation of a process begun in 2002.
The primary purpose of the Nairobi workshop was to
provide participants with a better understanding of
managing information in challenging humanitarian
environments. Particular focus was given to
discussions on strengthening humanitarian information
management capacities in Africa, especially with regard
to assessing humanitarian crises, identifying gaps,
monitoring, evaluation, and early warning, as well as
to taking stock of current best practices. End
summary.


2. From May 29 to 31, a Washington-based USAID/OFDA
Information Officer and Nairobi-based USAID/OFDA
Information Technology Specialist attended OCHA's
Humanitarian Information Network workshop. This year's
workshop was a continuation efforts by OCHA to improve
humanitarian information management that began in
February 2002 with the Geneva Symposium of Best
Practices in Humanitarian Information Exchange, and
continued with follow-up workshops in Bangkok in
December 2003 and Panama in August 2005.

Broad-based Participation


3. Participants in the 2006 Nairobi workshop were
drawn from key humanitarian organizations, including UN
agencies, local and international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs),national governments, regional
organizations, donors, and other stakeholders.
Participants primarily consisted of practitioners
working in information management, information
communications technology, and general information
functions, but also included senior management from
participating organizations.

Purpose


4. The workshop's purpose was to strengthen
humanitarian information management and exchange in
Africa. Information management was defined as the sum
of all activities, including collection, processing,
organization, and dissemination of information that
assist humanitarian actors to achieve their goals in an
effective and timely manner. The workshop focused on
Africa-specific humanitarian concerns to enable
participants to better understand the management of
information within a context of multiple humanitarian
challenges. Additionally, it provided support for the
development of information management practices across
Africa, and raised new issues in managing information,
in particular the new UN-based cluster approach.


5. The workshop's objectives were to:

-- Assess how information management can support
delivery of humanitarian assistance;

-- Promote and develop information management standards
to enable professional and effective information
exchange at the interagency level of support;

-- Create linkages between information management,
advocacy, and early warning;

-- Create links between local and regional needs for
information management standards, tools, and best

practices in the context of specific humanitarian
situations; and

-- Develop and sustain regional standards and best
practices among humanitarian information partners in
Africa.

Panel Discussions


6. Workshop panels were held on the following topics:

-- Managing information in difficult humanitarian
environments. Using the context of the Darfur
emergency, this panel addressed the challenges of
managing information in an environment of multiple
humanitarian challenges such as movements of internally
displaced persons, vast coverage area, and coordination
among a large number of agencies. Important points
raised included recognizing information management as a
collaborative process between the field and
headquarters, knowing the target audience and user
needs, distinguishing between what humanitarian actors
need to know and what's nice to know, keeping the
system simple, ensuring rapid turnaround of information
products, and encouraging ownership among users of
information systems.

-- Supporting humanitarian partners to take informed
decisions in the determination of priorities and the
mobilization of resources. This panel covered the role
of information in accurately assessing needs,
monitoring delivery assistance, and tracking who is
doing what and where and identifying and addressing
gaps to determine priorities for action. Discussions
focused on the use of the UN?s new cluster approach for
activity analysis, which was a new concept for most
participants.

-- Managing information to support advocacy and public
information in raising awareness and mobilizing
response. Discussion centered on the fine line that
information specialists encounter between provision of
information and advocacy efforts, especially within the
sensitive and highly political arena of human security.
The main issue raised was the risk of misinterpretation
by information management staff of what constitutes
advocacy.

-- Early warning, preparedness, and response.
Participants discussed personal and agency experiences
on current early warning systems in Africa, lessons
learned, and whether the systems provide timely
communication of early warning signals to all actors,
early preparedness, and early action, and whether these
tools are shared among actors on the ground. An
important observation was the overwhelming number of
early warning systems in use in Africa, and the lack of
common terminology, standards, and classifications
providing consistent and reliable information to
humanitarian actors to allow for accurate situational
analysis.

Observations/Conclusions


7. With the growing complexity of humanitarian
emergencies, effective information management has
become a critical component of relief operations. The
2002 Geneva Symposium discussed pertinent concepts such
as data standards, collection methods, processing,
analysis, organization, quality, and dissemination of
information for assessments and baseline data. These
issues, identified in 2002 as critical to supporting
humanitarian operations, were addressed again during

the 2006 workshop. Discussion groups consistently
cited similar themes of accessibility, inclusiveness,
inter-operability, accountability, verifiability,
relevance, objectivity, humanity, timeliness, and
sustainability of the data that information management
practitioners provide to humanitarian actors.


8. While the workshop raised key issues, several
important concerns were not adequately addressed:

-- Presently, no agency, person, or group has been
mandated to take the lead in overseeing implementation
of the action points raised. Although previous
workshops led to important conclusions and lessons,
there was no lead agency to oversee implementation of
the various recommendations made. Similarly, it is not
clear what the outcome of the 2006 Nairobi workshop
will be and whether participating agencies will produce
a workable framework with appropriate follow on
activities.

-- Humanitarian actors need to identify user needs and
emphasize data sets and formats that directly support
decision-making at the field level and promote data and
information standards within the humanitarian community
by expanding on partnerships.

-- There is a clear need to engage local and national
actors, civil society, and private sector groups in
information management activities. National
participation in emergency planning, monitoring, and
evaluation should also be encouraged. This could be
strengthened by building and strengthening national
capacity in information management and exchange and
embracing the use of local knowledge.

BELLAMY