The Earthquake and Tsunami disaster which struck off the coast of Indonesia on 26 December 2004 led to the loss of over a quarter of a million lives and devastation in no fewer than 12 countries in South East Asia, South Asia and East Africa.
This is well known, but what is less well known is the extent to which modern information and communication technology was deployed around this event.
There has been a great deal of publicity about the need for sophisticated early-warning systems for natural disasters, especially those created by tsunamis, but much less attention to the need to link those sophisticated systems to the communities which bear the brunt of the disasters.
Even less attention has been given to the way ICTs can and must be included into disaster preparedness and response at the community level if the impact of disasters on communities is to be mitigated.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is deeply involved in promoting awareness of the critical need to extend the benefits of information and communication technologies to the communities. We call this effort "e-preparedness", a term that speaks for itself.
Our work, which is essentially at the community level through the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies concerned, is based around the need to provide support, assistance, protection and care to the most vulnerable in those communities.
The nature of the Red Cross Red Crescent mandate needs to be understood clearly so it can be related to the work of governments at all levels and civil society at all levels.
National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are defined by international law as the auxiliaries to the public authorities in the humanitarian field. As such, they have a special relationship with their governments.
In disaster situations, it is noteworthy that governments have agreed, through resolutions adopted with their support at International Conferences, that National Societies should participate in national disaster planning committees.
The auxiliary role is set in such a way as to protect the independence of each National Society and its ability to work within the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
As such, National Societies are often perceived as similar to non-governmental organisations, and indeed much of their work is very similar to that of NGOs. But, in international terms at least, they are not NGOs but form a bridge between government and civil societies in their countries.
The IFRC is a similar institution. It is an international organisation in the eyes of the United Nations system and has all the rights and responsibilities of such an organisation when working with the UN. It is, for example, integrated into the UN's Inter-Agency Standing Committee where it supplies the co-chair of the Task Force on Natural Disasters.
But it has a similar relationship with the international non-governmental movement, and is also integrated into the councils and committees which are managed by the NGO community.
This is important to consideration of the role we can and indeed must play in bringing together those whose partnership is essential if the world of the future is to make effective use of information and communications technology to combat the threat of disasters.
We see this development of strong human resources alongside hardware and software as essential. It is through this that we will be better able to provide and strengthen the very sophisticated technology which now swings into place to support intense disaster relief operations.
An example of this technology is the Humanitarian Logistics System (HLS) which the IFRC has jointly developed with the Fritz Institute.
Without introducing too many statistics into this presentation, it might help to show that such a system must be available for use whenever disaster strikes. For the tsunami disaster, we suddenly had logistics needs which were met through
- 298 cargo flights
- 53 vessels
- 111 trucks
- 17 warehouses
- 5 planes, 4 helicopters, 2 landing craft and 6 other boats,
- 3 logistics Emergency Response Units and 25 expatriate staff.
All this has to be done in conjunction with the National Society of the affected country or, as in this case, with the National Societies of several countries affected at the same time by the same disaster.
This means, because of the very nature of our Movement and because of our mandate priority for the most vulnerable, that it also has to be done on the spot and in a way responsive to the needs of the community itself.
For us, "affected country" does not mean the capital. It means the people whose lives and livelihoods have been taken by the cruelty of nature.
It means all the people, without any discrimination of any kind. This also means using all available human resources to prepare for and respond to disasters and to take part in recovery afterwards.
One of the special characteristics of the ICT age in which we now live is that youth have so readily accepted the challenges it poses.
The IFRC places a high premium on youth involvement in the utilisation of the benefits of information and communications technology, and our Youth sectors in National Societies are playing a lively part in the introduction of the technology to the benefit of the communities in which they live.
Soon after the Tsunami a number of Red Cross Youth in Europe started several activities in schools to sensitise children and young people about natural disaster, as well as to inform their members, through text messages and e-mail, about the importance of national and international coordination.
The chaos and destruction of a natural disaster may seem like an unlikely place to find sophisticated ICT systems. However major international relief operations could not function without them.
Following a major disaster, IFRC will often deploy an IT and Telecommunications Emergency Response Unit (ERU). This consist of a team of trained Red Cross Red Crescent people with sufficient equipment to establish the necessary IT and telecommunications infrastructure for the operation. This may include a PC network, VHF radios, HF radios and satellite connectivity.
Without this infrastructure, the safety of staff and volunteers cannot be assured, the financial and logistics systems cannot run and we cannot supply details of the disaster to the rest of the world.
It is a grim contrast that the volunteers of the Indonesian Red Cross in Bandah Aceh might one day be setting up high tech computer systems and the next recovering bodies into body bags.
Of course the best (or least bad) outcomes from natural disasters occur when the community is well prepared.
Disaster preparedness is as pervasively affected by IT as any other part of life. Effective disaster preparedness depends on strong organization coupled with the fastest possible communications systems and methods.
This in turn depends on robust ICT systems (whether high tech or low tech), efficient training, a dedication to sharing best practice and, very importantly, the ability to modify systems developed centrally to respond to changed needs in special circumstances or areas. The term we use for this is "e-preparedness".
Our success with ICT in disaster response should maybe be measured in how little it is used, not how much. The more success we have in enabling the technology in the vulnerable communities, the less will be the requirement for intervention. This might please the Indonesian Red Cross volunteers who would, I'm sure, rather spend their time with computers than picking up bodies.