Why Information Matters: A Foundation for Resilience

Embracing Change: The Critical Role of Information, a research project by the Internews' Center for Innovation & Learning, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, combines Internews' longstanding effort to highlight the important role ofinformation with Rockefeller's groundbreaking work on resilience. The project focuses on three major aspects:- Building knowledge around the role of information in empowering communities to understand and adapt to different types of change: slow onset, long-term, and rapid onset / disruptive;- Identifying strategies and techniques for strengthening information ecosystems to support behavioral adaptation to disruptive change; and- Disseminating knowledge and principles to individuals, communities, the private sector, policymakers, and other partners so that they can incorporate healthy information ecosystems as a core element of their social resilience strategies

Natural disasters : what is the role for social safety nets?

This paper makes the case for why safety nets are an important tool for managing the risk of natural hazards. The use of safety nets is advocated both ex ante, to prevent and mitigate the impact of natural disaster and ex post, to cope with the impacts of natural shocks. Firstly, the paper explores the implications of contextual factors to be taken into account in the design of an effective safety net system to respond to the needs generated by natural disasters. Learning from the responses to a number of recent natural disasters, a typology of the different types of natural hazards which require different approaches to reduce their risk is introduced. Secondly, the paper considers some'guidelines'for improving the design and implementation of safety nets either to prevent and/or to recover from natural disasters. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations for more effective safety net and suggestions for addressing key issues are outlined.Safety Nets and Transfers,Hazard Risk Management,Food&Beverage Industry,Labor Policies,Natural Disasters

Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative Asia: Final Evaluation

The DSN Initiative was launched in 2007 under the new strategy of the Rockefeller Foundation. The initiative intends:[1] To improve human resources for disease surveillance in developing countries, thus bolstering national capacity to monitor, report, and respond to outbreaks;[2] To support regional networks to promote collaboration in disease surveillance and response across countries; and[3] To build bridges between regional and global monitoring effortsThe purpose of the DSN evaluation in the Mekong region was twofold:[1]To inform the work and strategy of the Foundation, its grantees, and the broader field of disease surveillance, based on the experience of DSN investments in the Mekong region. More specifically, the evaluation will inform future directions and strategies for current areas of DSN Initiative work, particularly in Asia, and will highlight potential new areas of work and strategy; and[2] To provide accountability to the Rockefeller Foundation's board, staff, and stakeholders for the DSN funds spent in the Mekong region

A tool to assess learning processes based on the cooperation principle

A strategy for cooperation in emergency management has been developed and politically agreed upon by the Rogaland County Council, Norway. The region comprised by the strategy consists of many different actors within societal safety and emergency management. The strategy aims at strengthening the existing cooperation, establishing professional centres and further developing competencies in their emergency response efforts within the region. The region has more than twenty road tunnels either in the planning phase, under construction or in operation. The emergency services have established a new organisation of their cooperation to ensure coordination, learning and supervision. This relates both to exercises and real event operations. An important tool in this respect is a recently developed handbook for cooperative exercises. The book is used in planning, execution and follow-up of all cooperation exercises. In this paper we present our newly developed evaluation model for following up the cooperation exercise guidelines, with special attention to events in road tunnels. We employ a learning model that extends the notion of learning from observed changes to also include confirmation and comprehension of cooperation activities.acceptedVersio

Enacting “accountability in collaborative governance”: lessons in emergency management and earthquake recovery from the 2010–2011 Canterbury Earthquakes

Purpose: The paper illustrates how accountability of collaborative governance was constituted in the context of disaster managerial work carried out by the Government, local authorities, and Māori community organisations, after the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand. Methodology: A case study detailing the communitarian approach to disaster recovery management by a nationalised Māori earthquake response network is contrasted with the formal emergency management infrastructure’s response to the Canterbury earthquakes. Findings: Critical analysis of the effectiveness and failures of these approaches highlights the institutional and cultural political issues that hinder the institutionalization of collaborative and accountable governance in the fields of disaster risk reduction and emergency management. Implications: The paper contributes to the accountability research and practice in general and disaster accountability in particular by addressing a more multifaceted model of “accountability combined with collaborative governance” as a way to build on and critique some of the seemingly more narrow views of accountability. Originality: The study presents rare insights on the interactions between formal and community level accountability and collaborative governance in the context of New Public Governance (NPG)

Collective IT artifacts: Toward Inclusive Crisis Infrastructures

This paper investigates a previously overlooked phenomenon in crisis response information systems, namely inclusive crisis infrastructure. By expanding the well-acknowledged infrastructure concept with alternatives to understand the nature and scope of inclusive crisis infrastructures, this paper contributes to closing the gap between theory and practice by raising some research questions critical to the study of inclusive crisis infrastructures. The emerging literature on crisis response information systems suggests that external sourcing of information increasingly influences crisis response operations. To contribute to this discourse, the paper draws on Pipek and Wulf’s (2009) definition of work infrastructures and Palen and Liu’s (2007) conceptualization of peer-to-peer communications to develop a better understanding of the crisis response arena as a whole. In doing so, this paper goes beyond the emphasis on event-based technologies that currently dominate the crisis response information systems literature and instead argues why crisis infrastructures need to be both inward-looking and accommodating to technological and social outcomes parallel to formal response contexts. The novel conceptualization captures the fact that the crisis context contains collections of collective IT artifacts that are not aligned or related but that are, for autonomy reasons, interlinked to crisis organizations’ current IT infrastructure and may be of great value to such organizations if infrastructure capability options are considered

Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative Africa: Final Evaluation

The overall objective of the Foundation's Disease Surveillance Networks (DSN) Initiative is to strengthen technical capacity at the country level for disease surveillance and to bolster response to outbreaks through the sharing of technical information and expertise. It supports formalizing collaboration, information sharing and best practices among established networks as well as trans-national, interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral efforts, and is experienced in developing and fostering innovative partnerships. In order to more effectively address disease threats, the DSN has four key outcome areas:(1) forming and sustaining trans-boundary DSN;(2) strengthening and applying technical and communication skills by local experts and institutions;(3) increasing access and use of improved tools and methods on information sharing, reporting and monitoring; and(4) emphasizing One Health and transdisciplinary approaches to policy and practice at global, regional and local levels

Who speaks for the future of Earth? How critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene

This paper asks how the social sciences can engage with the idea of the Anthropocene in productive ways. In response to this question we outline an interpretative research agenda that allows critical engagement with the Anthropocene as a socially and culturally bounded object with many possible meanings and political trajectories. In order to facilitate the kind of political mobilization required to meet the complex environmental challenges of our times, we argue that the social sciences should refrain from adjusting to standardized research agendas and templates. A more urgent analytical challenge lies in exposing, challenging and extending the ontological assumptions that inform how we make sense of and respond to a rapidly changing environment. By cultivating environmental research that opens up multiple interpretations of the Anthropocene, the social sciences can help to extend the realm of the possible for environmental politics