The Importance Of Information For An Effective Coordination: The Ocha Information Management Policy.

The importance of information for an effective coordination: the OCHA information management policy.

Introduction
When I started to define the subject matter of this essay, my intention was to analyze the coordination role of the Office for the Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the relief operations in Haiti after the earthquake occurred on January 12th, 2010. As I began the research, I encountered a big obstacle: the information about the emergencies in Haiti is often fragmented, and sometimes it contains several contradictions. One can find reports regarding the same emergency and the same period of time with different facts andfigures. The latter is due to the fact that the information comes from different actors with different goals and focuses. On the other hand, the sources are so broad that it is very hard to obtain reliable and objective information.
The aforementioned took me into another direction as it raised my awareness on the importance of the information available, the control of its contents and sources aswell as of its disclosure. It’s crucial for people, NGOs and institutional bodies that work in emergency situations to have access to immediate, accurate and reliable information about the development of the ongoing situation in order to plan and execute successfully their actions. Nowadays, the foregoing is still very hard, especially in the first days following an emergency. Obviously, this is inpart physiological as the main priority of the entities involved in the relief operation is not to gather or register ordered information and to share it but to deliver relief and save lives. Though for accountability purposes and because of the fact that humanitarian agencies achieve better results when cooperating, they should include in their projects record keeping activities and reportsregarding the execution of their projects. But, the problem is that when the sharing of information starts, it happens in a confused way, as highlighted in the precedent paragraph.
In a panorama as the one briefly described, OCHA has gained progressively an important role and Information Management (IM) has become a priority within this agency’s coordination agenda. According to the Guidelines forOCHA Information Management , “Coordination is a complex process (joint analysis, planning and decision making; building consensus on goals and priorities) but the first step is to ensure that the relevant actors are at least working with the same information and that this is as accurate and timely as possible. Information is in this sense the foundation stone on which decision-making andcoordination are based” . This guiding principle puts in evidence that to make effective coordination is crucial to have full access to timely and relevant information. In the last decade, OCHA has focused its efforts to develop principles and practical mechanisms to have a quick and efficient system to gather, organize and share information in emergency situations. OCHA’s IM System is the forthpillar of the OCHA’s mandate along with coordination, policy and advocacy.
In the first months after the earthquake in Haiti, OCHA’s field Office played an important role on information sharing: situation reports (sitreps) were released daily and a number meetings and round tables about IM were organized . Especially in the first month after the earthquake, the quality of the information providedwas not always excellent and complete. Though in a situation as the one in Haiti, where all the logistics and social structures were dramatically interrupted, it was objectively impossible to have all the information system working perfectly.
Based on these reflections, I decided to modify the subject matter of this essay and to deepen in OCHA’s field IM Strategy, its principles and operational...