Workshop

Humanitarian Information in Latin America and the Caribbean
Panama City
Riande Continental Hotel
2-3 August 2005

This workshop will examine existing humanitarian information management techniques and tools in the context of the operating principles which arose from the 2002 Geneva Symposium. Regionally-based professionals from operating agencies, NGOs and government systems will come together in Panama to share experiences, develop a community of practice in the region to improve emergency response and hopefully to establish some mechanisms to guide regional efforts related to humanitarian information exchange.

Participants will engage in theme-based workshop sessions, share lessons learned, observe current examples of good practice in humanitarian information management and sharing, and develop forward-moving strategies to coordinate future activities. W orkshop themes and presentations include:

• The essential components of an effective humanitarian information system
• Common obstacles and challenges that humanitarian information professionals face
• Good practice: regional case studies – who's doing what? How? Where?
• Deciding on a community of practice – common standards and indicators for the best quality information
• Coordinated efforts and a common approach to humanitarian information sharing
• Unified efforts to promote an effective, regionally-based information sharing system

This workshop is open to a maximum of 50 participants from United Nations agencies, NGOs and governments.

The workshop on Humanitarian Information in Latin America and the Caribbeanis the second in a series of regional workshops organized by ReliefWeb, the Humanitarian Information Network and OCHA New York and Panama.