UN official launches Haiti report
(Khaleej Times) - By Lily B. Libo-on
DUBAI — Valerie Amos, the United Nations’ Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, launched the “Disaster Relief 2.0: The future of information sharing and humanitarian emergencies” here on Monday.
The report was launched during the opening ceremony of the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development (DIHAD) Conference and Exhibition at World Trade Center.
Amos said the global launch marked the collaboration between the volunteer technical community and the humanitarian system, which analysed how the humanitarian community and the emerging volunteer and technical communities worked together in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and recommended the ways to improve coordination between these communities in future emergencies.
She said four things were learned from the Haiti earthquake, it being a huge disaster.
“Generally, main lesson out of our evaluation is the importance of working with the national government and its different departments so that UN agencies, our international partners are really working with local capacity.
Second this is the importance of listening to local communities about what is it that they want when you go in to help.
Third is access to information and making sure that the information available is sufficient to enable us to make decisions on what we have to do.
“The fourth is the importance of making sure that we work with local government and communities to help them prepare for future emergencies so that they will be able to respond properly in the future,” she said.
“We may again look at the lesson learnt in Haiti and apply it elsewhere but we have to be aware that every country is different to have it in the same or different context. The most important is the recognition that any country can benefit from it.
It’s not how prepared are you. But, it is always good to review what you have done and what mechanisms are in place.”
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