In my previous column I indicated that, as a follow-up to that contribution, I would look more closely at the character of, and the wider issues surrounding, the application of ICT solutions to the fields of both Complex Humanitarian – or Natural – Disasters, and to Complex Humanitarian – or Man-made – Emergencies.
In the former – Complex Humanitarian Disasters – I was to have concerned myself with ‘The Mobile Communications Foundation to Complex Humanitarian Deployments’ in the context of Military+Military cooperation, and also with ‘The Dynamics of Integrating Communications Networking for Geographically Remote Applications’ in the context of Civilian+Military cooperation – with the latter referring specifically to situations where such civilian entities as International Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the military, etc, collaborate to address the needs of disaster response tactics and recovery strategies.
In the latter – Complex Humanitarian Emergencies – I had intended to cover the ICT-related concerns for securing Joint Task Force and nation-building missions in the context of the world’s conflicted and failed states.
However, the sometime horrific reality of Earth’s tectonic plate dynamics has somewhat narrowed my intended emphasis, and instead I will elaborate on the first of these only, with a particular bias towards Civilian+Military coordination, and on what is likely to be reinforced in our understanding of the essential role of ICTs, and the underpinning contribution of satellite-based communications to effective networking, by the Haiti earthquake of 12th January 2010.
The horror of the vital statistics is all too familiar – a main shock of magnitude 7, numerous aftershocks, 230,000 dead, 300,000 injured, 1,000,000 homeless, 250,000 homes leveled, 30,000 commercial and government buildings destroyed – and the passage of time will only reveal an even worse catalog of devastation. Undoubtedly, what will follow in the months and years ahead is a realization that despite the rightly praised collaborative efforts of military, governments, international organizations (IOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), etc, the response to the earthquake could perhaps have been more robust. In addition, the continuing nature of the international collaborative response to this disaster must take a long-term view of what Haiti, and its people, will need well into the future.
As succinctly stated by Larry Wentz, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the US National Defense University, in his "Information and Communication Technologies for Civil-Military Coordination in Disaster Relief and Stabilization and Reconstruction", a part of the success of any effort to use ICTs to boost a recovery effort is what happens before a disaster strikes. In places prone to natural disasters, such as the recognized earthquake zone astride which Haiti lies, the combined efforts of host governments, aid agencies, IOs, NGOs, and disaster response-capable military forces, should be directed towards pre-planning and pre-positioning disaster response supplies and equipment, including the essential components of a pre-planned ICT infrastructure that is ready-to-go when the disaster actually strikes, and which can be used in the longer-term reconstruction period following the immediate, shorter-term, recovery.
Off-the-shelf ICT packages that include commercial satellite communications capabilities, "Internet-in-a-box" products, turnkey, and managed information services, all of which can help to meet shorter-term disaster relief requirements, can also be leveraged for the longer-term, as per the provisions of the Tampere Convention. This calls for the provision of rapid telecommunication assistance to mitigate the impact of a disaster, and covers not only the deployment and operation of a reliable and flexible telecommunication infrastructure but also the removal of any restrictive regulatory barriers, licensing, and equipment importation restrictions, as well as provisions for the longer-term application of the deployed communications networking capabilities.
Mr. Wentz suggests that because ICTs are critical enablers of relief efforts – and of subsequent reconstruction and development strategies – there is a need amongst civilian and military first-responders alike to understand and share information on the level of ICT development in any country that may be affected by earthquakes, before any such disaster actually occurs. In other words, if a country may be disaster affected – whether by drought, or earthquake, or flood, or hurricane, or tsunami, etc – it should be ICT prepared. This would then enable the pre-planning of the necessary levels of international intervention required to replace and augment any pre-disaster ICT capability, if any significant level of ICT development did actually pre-date the disaster, and if such a capability did not exist before, exactly what will need to be deployed to meet immediate – and future – ICT needs.
Satellite communications provide the critical path to an ICT capability on the ground for relief in disaster situations, connecting and helping to move logistical, rescue and first responder resources where, very often, terrestrial wireless (and wireline) infrastructures have been damaged or destroyed. Given that access to a wireless communications network that is not dependant on terrestrial infrastructure – and which provides mobility – is so critical, and that deployment of satellite communications is, therefore, among the first priorities in any emergency response situation, it is essential for Civilian+Military emergency response and disaster recovery planners – as well as "on the ground" emergency workers – to have a ready understanding of how they can get their satellite connection.
Information about the nature of the satellite solution, how to access it, and how to optimize it to the requirements of a specific organization, are critical elements in all operational planning practice. To achieve this optimization, information will be needed on how to:
· Ascertain whether satellite does fit a particular application
· Design a satellite network optimized to requirement(s)
· Develop a business plan to sustain the network
· Procure a competitively-priced satellite network
· Deploy, maintain, operate and – potentially – grow the network.
It is absolutely commonsensical from my personal viewpoint that disaster-related ICT deployments should always be left behind to aid human and physical capacity-building, and the extended development agenda generally, and ideally the very ICT deployments that are short-term recovery and medium-term reconstruction focused would also fit-in with, and be effective facilitators of, longer-term development objectives.
Civilian+Military collaboration as a prepared response to disaster must be built on the firm foundation of coordination – in planning, in information sharing, and in task sharing – a management task that is wholly reliant on effective communications system deployments at exactly the time when information and task sharing is at its most critical. No single element, or stakeholder, in a host government, aid agency, IO, NGO, and disaster response-capable military collaboration can source all the data and information that is required, either in advance or in post-disaster "real-time". None of these alone can undertake and fulfill the management task required, and, more importantly, a shared and integrated networking communications approach avoids duplication of effort, and enhances coordination towards a common knowledge base so that critical information can be pooled, analyzed, and validated – fostering the creation of a Civilian+Military Collaborative Information Environment, not for ad hoc use, but, ideally, a fully permanent feature of the international disaster response environment with a foundation in, and dependence upon, satellite-based technologies.
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Martin Jarrold is the Chief of International Program Development of the GVF. He can be reached at: martin.jarrold@gvf.org
