Strengthening crisis information management in a networked world: A call for vision, leadership, and collaboration

How do we respond? How do we know when to respond? Two fundamental questions drive not only humanitarian relief and aid work, but also all responses to a wider range of emergencies and crises that the United Nations system is geared to prevent, mitigate and help recover from. The underlying principle of all UN operations is to help save lives, prevent unnecessary deaths and, in cases where mass scale atrocities have been committed, hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. As we move into the second decade of the twenty-first century, we realize that knowing implies having access to and leveraging information and communications technology (ICT), ranging from the web and the Internet through personal computers, to the mobile web through smartphones and Short Message Service (SMS). The human condition is now inextricably entwined with the availability of information online, from basic services to personal shopping, from banking and commerce to education and healthcare. Nations with better ICT infrastructure invariably show better human development indicators and stronger economic prosperity. At the same time, the recent riots in London (fanned by the use of web-based social media and ICT), the growing instances of cybercrime, online hate speeches, identity theft, data loss, surveillance by repressive regimes, and propaganda through digital media are but a few aspects of the flip side of our networked societies.