digital disaster

Reflections on Digital Response

“Hotel Montana at Rue Franck Cardozo in Petionville collapsed. 200 feared trapped.”

“We are in the street Saint Martin below Bel Air near the hotel. We are dying of hunger. Please bring us aid.”

These desperate pleas are two of tens of thousands that were sent by text message in the first few days after the earthquake struck Port-au-Prince. They were often crowd-sourced by a global network of volunteers who mapped the needs and shared the data with aid agencies on the crowd. In the business of disaster management and aid delivery, Haiti was a game-changer.

It’s not your traditional cry for help. But in Haiti, with traditional media and phone systems destroyed, text messages and Twitter were often the only way desperate, hungry or hurting people could signal their distress.

It is not inaccurate to consider Haiti as the first real digital disaster where the people affected communicated their needs quicker than the traditional needs assessment mechanisms of aid agencies could kick in. Within two weeks the Red Cross had teamed up with a mobile phone company to text more than 1.2 million subscribers a day with messages about vaccinations, shelter and sanitation, public health information and other vital information. The push of a button achieved what would normally take an army of volunteers days. Free hotline services were provided that handled as many as 70'000 calls a day from the public.

Today this partnership between an aid agency and a telecoms company has resulted in the co-development of a groundbreaking SMS technology and gateway that could literally save hundreds of thousands of lives if successfully deployed though a wide range of potential uses such as early warning systems, public health messaging, emergency assessments, community outreach and data gathering, monitoring and evaluation - all geared towards putting people at the center of the humanitarian effort.

From ‘victims’ to first responders
The idea of using cell phone technology in disaster management is not new. After the 2004 Tsunami, it became clear that modern wireless communication could play critical role in systems for both early warning as well as crisis management.

Digital communications are only a small part of a broader strategy to give greater voice to those most affected by natural disasters. The approach recognizes that people affected by disasters are not 'victims' but a significant force of first responders who need to be empowered and engaged as part of the overall aid effort. After all, it is their recovery, their future, their lives and livelihoods at stake. Haiti has made that lofty ideal a reality.

Background if needed can also include how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (the world's largest humanitarian network) is using social media to mobilize volunteers, engage with supporters (and detractors), raise funds, influence decision makers and promote social inclusion - to name a few. The above issue on Digital Response can also broader evidence-based case studies and elements as background to the assertion that social media, combined with mobile technologies, and with Haiti as a catalyst, is changing - for the better - the way aid works.

Paul Conneally - Geneva - 13 October 2010
Head of Media and Public Communication for the IFRC (www.ifrc.org