Evaluation of IT humanitarian platforms and their possible utilisation as co-ordination instruments

This report was produced in the context of the follow-up on the ECHO Partners’ Conference of 2001 and the preparation for the Partners’ Conference of 2002. With the aim to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the European response mechanism to humanitarian emergencies, ECHO and its partners intend to improve their co-ordination and communication systems. These systems rely more and more on information technology (IT). This report studies the utility of the existing IT tools and the feasibility of developing a complementary database.
The report is the result of a consultative process. ECHO’s partners were asked to respond to a questionnaire on the utility of the existing humanitarian IT tools and on the feasibility to set up a new information exchange system. An analysis of the response to the questionnaire and a survey of existing Internet tools lead to the following conclusions and recommendations, which may be presented and discussed at the Partners’ Conference of 2002.