UK, 5 Dec - MapAction is collaborating in a project with infoasaid to map the media and telecoms landscapes of 22 developing countries vulnerable to humanitarian crises to enhance humanitarian response.

infoasaid is a consortium of Internews and the BBC World Service Trust. Their objective is to improve how aid agencies communicate with disaster-affected communities - the focus is on providing humanitarian information. The emphasis is on the need to deliver information, as aid itself, through the most appropriate channels.

The aim of the project is to produce a series of tools, including country-specific media and telecommunications guides, to help humanitarian agencies communicate effectively with crisis-affected communities. Each country guide identifies local media organizations, telecommunication companies and other media service providers that can help to produce and disseminate radio shows, TV programs, SMS messages, poster campaigns or public service announcements to communicate with local communities in a timely, accurate and well-targeted manner.

In virtue of this collaboration, MapAction is literally putting much of this information onto maps to enhance humanitarian response. The maps, which will be accessible both on- and off-line, are produced by collating technical data from radio stations and feeding it into a mapping system developed by infoasaid. This innovative humanitarian tool, to be launched in early 2012, will display the geolocation of local media outlets and provide available contact information for each.

At the same time, MapAction, as part of its standard humanitarian response, will strengthen its capacity to produce maps that help relief agencies communicate better with affected communities post disaster. The recent volunteer training focused on communicating with affected communities was attended by the Director of Humanitarian Media and the Head of Innovation and Technology from Internews, representing infoasaid. A simulation exercise looked into the importance of effective two-way communications with disaster affected populations and a series of maps to improve communication with affected populations based on the infoasaid media and telecommunication landscapes were devised.

From that training, three maps of the media and telecommunication landscape of Côte d’Ivoire were produced: one that overlays the presence of radio stations onto a map of the location of populations from different language families; one that shows all the radio and TV masts in relation to major language groups; and one representing the mobile phone coverage of a major telecommunication provider.

Better data and information on the impact of disasters and the needs of affected communities is a key element in ensuring the best possible response. However, aid responders very often do not know enough about local media and telecommunication landscapes pre-disaster, which could help them identify which outlets post-disaster might still be functioning and could be best used to reach affected populations. This is a gap in disaster preparedness and response that the infoasaid/MapAction collaboration aims to fill.

This collaboration between MapAction and infoasaid is part of the overall strategy of the infoasaid project that seeks to strengthen the capacity and preparedness of aid agencies to respond to the information and communication needs of disaster affected populations.

MANAGUA, 20 Oct – Responding to severe flooding in central America, a MapAction team is deploying to Nicaragua today.

Torrential rain from Tropical Depression 12-E has caused extensive flooding across Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Damage to roads and infrastructure from landslides has left many communities cut off from help.

A United Nations disaster assessment team was mobilised on Wednesday 19 October to assist in Nicaragua, where the government declared a state of emergency after more than 130,000 people were reported as affected. A MapAction team was requested to support the UN mission.

MapAction volunteers James Steel and Adia Bey flew out from the UK on Thursday morning to Managua, to rendezvous with the UN team. They took with them extensive GIS data for the region, assembled overnight from a wide range of sources by other MapAction team members through the charity’s well rehearsed ‘data scramble’ procedures. Meanwhile, mission equipment was prepared at MapAction’s new operations centre in Saunderton in Buckinghamshire, UK.

James Steel has deployed on numerous humanitarian missions with MapAction, including to Haiti, Pakistan, South East Asia and most recently to North Africa in March. For Adia Bey it is her first emergency mission since she joined the charity as a volunteer early this year. She recently took part in a UN disaster response training course in Peru.

James Steel commented: “The MapAction team has completed the preparation for this mission with their usual speed and efficiency. Two hours after the ‘go’ decision yesterday evening a briefing about the available map data, a list of the mission kit that will be waiting for us at Heathrow airport, and a full security risk assessment had all been forwarded to my blackberry! Great teamwork”.

Maps will be published on the Nicaragua deployment page.

UK, 19 Sep - MapAction has signed a cooperation agreement with the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) to strengthen both organisations' humanitarian programmes.

ACAPS is a consortium project of the NGOs HelpAge International, Merlin and Norwegian Refugee Council. It aims to improve the assessment of needs in disasters and other humanitarian emergencies. It delivers a range of services including methods training, and deploys specialist personnel in protracted and sudden-onset crises.

One of ACAPS' outputs is its Secondary Data Review (SDR) concept. These reports analyse existing assessment and baseline information to produce actionable humanitarian intelligence focused on key operational issues. Maps are a vital part of SDR publications, and MapAction will in future deliver required maps whenever required for new or updated SDRs. The first of these is the Yemen SDR, issued in September 2011.

MapAction and ACAPS will also seek opportunities to undertake joint training and field missions.

MapAction's chief executive Nigel Woof said: "Much of the information that passes through our field mapping units comes from humanitarian assessments. The assessment methodology practised by ACAPS has real rigour and focuses on crucial questions that aid agencies need to answer." 

The ACAPS website is at www.acaps.org

UK, 25 Aug – A range of MapAction clothing and gift items is now available to supporters of the charity.

MapAction has partnered with Spreadshirt.com, a leading online retailer of quality clothing. The MapAction online shop has a carefully chosen range of items inspired by the charity’s work in disasters and based on the field gear worn by its volunteers and staff in humanitarian crises around the world.

Items can be delivered almost anywhere in the world, using Spreadshirt’s sophisticated order processing ‘back office’. For every item sold, MapAction receives an average commission of 15% which goes directly to funding the charity’s emergency mapping service.

Darren Connaghan, one of MapAction’s operational volunteers, said: “We only get issued the blue shirts for field work, so I’m a bit envious that our supporters will get to wear a whole spectrum of colours to put the MapAction name out there. And Christmas isn’t that far away.”

The online shop is at www.mapaction.spreadshirt.co.uk.

UK, 23 Aug - The next Introduction to Humanitarian Mapping course is to be run in London on 5-7 October 2011.

The 3 day introduction to humanitarian mapping course is designed for humanitarian and development field workers and others who want to use GPS and free/open source mapping tools in their work. The syllabus is based on the newly released second edition of MapAction's Field Guide to Humanitarian Mapping and is grounded in practical, proven methods used by MapAction in disaster emergencies and development projects. It will include advanced use of Google Earth, how to find useful map data, and using the open source Quantum GIS software package.

The venue and facilities for both courses are being provided by the UK Royal Geographical Society, which is an experienced provider of training on fieldwork methods and which MapAction has partnered for the last two mapping courses.

Full details about the course and how to book a place can be found on the following RGS-IBG website page.