Attachments
When reflecting on the 2011 Disaster Relief 2.0 report and our conversations with all those involved, it is important to first contextualize the report within the time it was written.
At the time of its publication, efforts were being made across the humanitarian sector to centralize disaster relief responses. The authors sought to explore the existing interface (or lack thereof) between traditional humanitarian organizations, such as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), and the digital humanitarian community* (DHC) in order to describe it and offer recommendations for improvement.
The original scope of this report did not include local voices. As the work got under way, there was a clear desire to extend the scope in this regard, and the authors made several outreach attempts. Although a few interviews were conducted with Haitians involved in the 2010 response, the authors do not feel they can adequately claim that local voices were thoroughly included in the report.
Humanitarian needs have increased massively over the past decade, and most humanitarian operations today are due to human-made crises and in conflict zones. Also, Government and non-Government actors are much more actively limiting access to technology, connectivity and data. These larger trends were beyond the dimensions of this reflection report. The research and interviews were not controlled against these changes.
It should be noted that this report was researched and drafted prior to the earthquake that struck Haiti on 14 August 2021. Consideration should be given to conduct further research that compares the local Haitian capacity and humanitarian interface in the aftermath of the 2021 earthquake versus the 2010 earthquake.