The Science of Doing Good

The new information and communication technologies provide unprecedented opportunities for disaster-relief. As the article points out, Microsoft’s efforts to register roughly one million refugees who fled Kosovo in 1999 were well intentioned and were the first of their kind in an emergency situation. Microsoft’s headquarter, located in Paris, offered its service to the U.N., and photographed refugees and presented them with computer generated ID cards, which were being used later to, for example, locate their family members.  This case signifies the role of humanitarian infrastructure due to the unprofitable nature of the enterprise. Now space agencies collaborate to release satellite imagery free of charge during a disaster, and several non-profit organizations offer their aids through providing crisis-related mapping and analyzing geographic data.

“Sky-surveys” embrace satellite technologies and information technology to offer a fuller picture of disasters. These imageries captured by satellites then are combined with GIS tools which incorporate data from multiple sources. The resulted integration would provide vital information on the locations of victims, their health status, and etc.

However, there is a question as to how effective these technologies are. I think the technology itself cannot bring about the expected results, but its proper use can.  For example, as the article states evidence of war crimes can also be collected through forensic technologies.  In Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s, the U.S military captured aerial photographs of mass graves. Despite the presence of international forces, the images failed to prompt an immediate halt of the slaughter. As such, technology can only drive change when further factors like political intentions come to play. What Fink , as a physician, does not sufficiently address in the article is the broader social and organizational considerations.

Maitland et al (2007) touches upon some of these issues and look at potential implications of ICT’s relief as complements to program for long term socioeconomic development. They particularly appeal to the transition between disaster and development, and posit that the transition could face many hurdles. They describe these as challenges regarding physical and organizational context, and inter-organizational coordination. 

Physical context ‘s difficulties could include Challenging environment for ICT deployment with a lack of fixed, infrastructure, poor or non-existent transportation, lack of power, and exposure to weather (lack of structures). Organizational context could lead to other problems. For example, the amount of operational information flowing through an organization during a disaster response can be overwhelming. More importantly they contend that the conflict of knowledge and authority is regarded as the one the factors that can plague the whole process. In fact, the most sophisticated technology is unable to solve the conflict. 

The lack of inter-organizational coordination has to do with the multiplicity of relief agencies. It includes differences in funding bases and organizational goals, professional and organizational status hierarchies, and the tendency of each organization to try to maximize its own autonomy. To cope with these challenges, these entities require to raise interdependencies and communication. Interdependencies have been described as pooled, sequential or reciprocal, each requiring a corresponding type of coordination. In pooled interdependence, efficient coordination is accomplished through standardization. For example, maintaining a shared inventory database across several organizations is a standardized policy.

References:

Maitland, C.F., Pogrebnyakov, N. and van Gorp, A.F. A Fragile Link: Disaster Relief, ICTs and Development. Information and Communication Technologies and Development, 2006. ICTD'06. International Conference on. 339-346.