"The greatest challenge in managing humanitarian information lies in creating a culture of information-sharing that promotes the systematic collection, use and free flow of data, information and ideas, facilitates informed decision-making and builds trust and commitment among stakeholders."
Symposium on Best Practices in Humanitarian Information Exchange, 2002

Humanitarian Information Network (HIN)
Bringing together a community of practice on humanitarian information and knowledge

The HIN concept originated following the 2002 Geneva ‘Symposium on Best Practices in Humanitarian Information Exchange,’ with the purpose of building community among humanitarian information professionals and others with an interest in using Information Management to strengthen information exchange.

Since that time the HIN has now evolved into an informal network, voluntary in nature, that meets at either the global, regional or local level. Some 500 information professionals have attended these events to date and are now considered part of this network.

The HIN has built a community of practice by sharing information on new initiatives related to best practices, lessons learned, standards and operating principles. It has done so by holding three regional workshops in Bangkok (2003), Panama (2005), and Nairobi (2006), providing an opportunity for regional actors to develop their own regional communities and propose regional mechanisms for information exchange.

In 2007, the community of practice of the HIN came together for the Global Symposium +5 ‘Information for Humanitarian Action’ to review progress made on the recommendations from the 2002 Symposium. At the 2007 Symposium participants endorsed a statement where they “agreed on the need to strengthen the existing community of practice on humanitarian information, the HIN, expanding its membership and building on its work to date."

Reliefweb is committed to further developing and promoting this community of practice.