Effective Emergency Response Information Management

1. Information Management for Effective Emergency Response

2. What is Information Management The term ‘information management’ covers ‘the various stages of information processing from production to storage and retrieval to dissemination towards the better working of an organization; information can be from internal and external sources and in any format.’ Within this generic definition, there are various types and purposes of IM; the focus of these Guidelines is on IM in the context of inter-agency coordination and decision making with regard to humanitarian crises.

3. Principles of Humanitarian Inoformation Management and Exchange • Impartiality • Humanity • Timeliness • Sustainability • Reliability • Reciprocity • Confidentiality • Accessibility • Inclusiveness • Inter-operability • Accountability • Verifiability • Relevancy

4. The Information Management Cycle

5. The Virtuous Cycle of Information Exchange

6. Benefits of InformationManagement • Improves capacity of stakeholders for analysis and decision-making through strengthened info collection, processing, interpretation &dissemination • Ensures humanitarian actors are working with complementary information & baseline data (relevant, accurate &timely) • Data collected during emergencies also benefits early recovery, recovery, development and disaster preparedness • Information is the foundation on which decision- making for a coordinated response isbased

7. IM responsibilities inemergencies • Responsibility for IM for effective and coordinated intra-cluster response = Cluster Lead Agencies • Responsibility for IM for effective and coordinated inter-cluster response =OCHA

8. IM Responsibilities of ClusterLeads • Allocate human and financial resources forIM • Appoint IM focalpoint • Contribute to inter-cluster IM coordination, support coherence between intra and inter cluster IMinitiatives • Ensure adherence to global norms, policies,standards • Work with OCHA to establish systems/processes needed for effective info-sharing with clusterpartners • Generate cluster info (contact lists, meeting minutes, policy, technical guidance, datasets, needs/gapanalysis) • Establish confidentiality and privacy policy within cluster Ensure information is age and sex disaggregated where appropriate

9. IM Responsibilities • Produce standardized infoproducts: • Contact directories of humanitarianpartners • Meeting schedules, agendas and minutes ofmeetings • Who does What Where (3W) database andmaps • Documents situation (mission reports, assessments,etc) • Inventory of common cluster datasets • SituationReports • Mappingproducts • Provide minimum services for clustersincluding: • Space for humanitarian community to access inforesources • Geospatial data and analysis for inter-cluster decisionmaking • Management of collection and dissemination of inter-clusterinfo • Advocacy for data and info-sharing within humanitariancommunity • Technical IM advice to clusters on design for needsassessments • Cross-cluster needs/gap analysis based on info provided byclusters

11. Humanitarian Information Centre(HIC) • Standardized collection, processing, & dissemination ofinformation • Complements IM capabilities of national authorities and in-country humanitarianactors • Only deployed in emergencies that exceed capacity of government and partners to respond with IMcapacity • Guided by principles of accessibility, inclusiveness, inter-operability, accountability, verifiability, relevance, objectivity, neutrality, humanity, timeliness, &confidentiality • ***Common service for thehumanitarian • community***

12. Contacts Richard SennogaEducation Sector Information Management OfficerEducation in Emergencies Working Group - NigeriaSeconded by iMMAP Inc., www.immap.orgrsennoga@immap.org, rsennoga@unicef.org, richsenoga@gmail.comTel. +234 708 459 8000, +234 908 784 9251Skype - richsenoga