Help

This help section offers useful tips to navigate ReliefWeb and find information you need.

For other types of information, you may find the FAQ useful. You may also find the following links useful.

For information about the ReliefWeb project:

>>see About ReliefWeb

For information about the content of ReliefWeb, including the use of ReliefWeb materials and our document selection criteria:

>>see Editorial Policy [under development], Terms of Service [under development]

How to send information to share on the site and comments to ReliefWeb:

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Help topics

Overview of the site - How ReliefWeb is organized
Basic navigation - How to find specific maps and documents
How to print, save and email maps and documents
How to find basic facts and travel information on a country
How to get best results with Internet browsers  
How to speed up the loading of documents
How to deal with graphics, postscript files and large tables
Glossary of technical terms

Overview of the site - How ReliefWeb is organized

The site has six major dynamic sections which provide humanitarian information that is updated regularly:

1. Latest Updates
2. Countries & Emergencies
3. Appeals & Funding
4. Policies & Issues
5. Professional Resources
6. Maps

There are four sections which provides information about ReliefWeb itself:

7. About Us
8. Terms of Service [under development]
9. Privacy Policy [under development]
10. Help

Below are short descriptions on each section:

1. Latest Updates

The "Latest Updates" section shows update documents posted to the site during the last 72 hours. The default view is a list of documents posted in the past 72 hours by all sources on all countries and emergencies. Users can filter documents by sector, content type, region, source types and posting date. Users cannot, however,  filter the list in this section by country or by emergency. To do this, refer to the Countries & Emergencies section.

This section does not show the latest lists of  vacancies, training, policy and issues etc. Users should go to the each section's index page to view the latest posting., or follow the related links from the Latest Updates page.

In order to filter using multiple criteria not available in the filter tool, use Advanced Search.

For more on how to perform searches, see Search Tips.

2. Countries & Emergencies

In the "Countries & Emergencies" section, update documents are listed by country and by emergency.

Country pages are accessible from the "Countries & Emergencies" index page by choosing the region or from the "All Countries" list. Each country page offers a gateway to recent documents, maps, key documents, vacancies and training opportunities, country profile, etc. relating to a particular country, covering both complex emergencies and natural disasters.

Emergency pages are accessible from the "Countries & Emergencies" index page by choosing the region. Each region index page lists current complex emergencies and natural disasters. Users wishing to view past complex emergencies and natural disasters in the region should go to "Emergency Archives."

Each emergency/disaster page shows links to the same type of information as can be accessed from the country pages on a particular complex emergency or a natural disaster. The information covers not only the principally affected country but also other countries affected by the emergency or disaster. For example, the Afghanistan complex emergency page shows updates on Afghanistan but also on the countries receiving Afghan refugees, such as Pakistan and Tajikistan.

In both sections, recent documents can be filtered by sector, content type and source type.

3. Appeals & Funding

This section contains information on current and past humanitarian appeals, including the UN Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), a system-wide mechanism on the response delivery for complex emergencies. Users have access to the appeals documents as well as regularly updated "Financial Tracking Tables" and other contribution documents to learn how the requirements are met. Donors can report their contributions on-line.

From a country page, users can reach the "Appeals & Funding" page for all relevant appeals and funding related to that particular country. From an emergency page, users can reach the "Appeals & Funding" page for that particular emergency.

4. Policies & Issues

The "Policies & Issues" section is an on-line library of documents that are of global importance in humanitarian policies and issues. It contains analyses, evaluations, lessons learned, reference materials, etc. Users can sort the documents by date, source, topic and document type. When clicking the document title, users are first directed to a preview page so they can read a summary and see the file type and size before downloading large files.

5. Professional Resources

The "Professional Resources" section is a gateway to useful information for professional emergency workers. It contains links to sub-sections, such as to a sectoral or thematic groupings included in "communities of practice," a listing of past and current employment opportunities, a listing of training courses and conferences, and a contact information directory for humanitarian agencies and NGOs.

6. Maps (Map Centre)

Maps are classified in a similar way to updated documents. On country pages and emergency pages, users can sort  by map type (reference map, complex emergency map or natural disaster map), keyword and source.  Advanced search is available for more complex filtering.

When clicking a map title, users are first provided with a preview of the map along with a short description and the size and file type.

7. About ReliefWeb

The "About ReliefWeb" section contains general information on the ReliefWeb project, links to editorial policy, terms of service, privacy policy, monthly news and usage statistics, and other announcements.

8. Terms of Service [under development]

Terms and conditions for the use of ReliefWeb materials as well as for the use of the third party materials by ReliefWeb.

9. Privacy Statement [under development]

ReliefWeb's policy concerning the gathering and sharing of user information through the web site.

10. Help

While the "Help" section offers useful tips to navigate ReliefWeb, the sub-section, "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)," addresses questions ranging from ReliefWeb's coverage to how to donate for emergencies.


Basic navigation - How to find specific maps and documents

Example 1: Finding latest information about a particular emergency, by a particular source type in a particular sector

To look for what governments are doing in the water and sanitation sector for the countries affected by the South Asia Tsunami disaster of December 2004:

>>From the home page

>>Go to "Countries & Emergencies"

>>Choose the "Asia" region

>>Choose the disaster from the "Current natural disasters" list (if not listed there, go to "Emergency Archives") (If the disaster was listed in the "Selected Disasters and Emergencies" in the "Countries & Emergencies" index page, you could also choose the disaster there.)

>>Select "South Asia: Earthquake and Tsunami - Dec 2004"

>>Click "Gov'ts" from the "See updates from" to see a list of all updates posted in last 72 hours by government sources relating to all relief sectors

>>Filter this list by choosing "Water & Sanitation" from the sector drop-down list and click "Go."

Example 2: Finding maps on a particular country in a particular emergency on a particular theme

To look for maps on humanitarian access in DR Congo relating to the Great Lakes complex emergency:

>>From the home page

>>Go to the "Map Centre" either from the "Maps" navigational tab or the "Map Centre" logo 

>>Choose the "Africa" region

>>Choose "DR Congo" from the countries list

>>Filter the DR Congo maps listing by choosing "Complex Emergency Maps" and "Access" from the drop-down lists in the "Show Maps by" filtering tool and clicking "Go."

Documents in other sections, such as "Vacancies", "Training opportunities" and "Policies and issues" are organized in a similar manner and can be filtered in the same way.

You can also perform simple text searches within each section and more complex filtering by using advanced search.

For more on how to perform searches, see Search Tips.

How to print, save and email maps and documents

ReliefWeb offers "print," "save" and "email" buttons in each map and document, including vacancy announcements, training listing and policies and issues documents.

The "print" button behaves much the same way as your browser's file menu "print" command, except that by using the "print" button, you can remove the navigation elements from the printout. Users should note that on the preview pages of maps and policies & issues documents, the "print" command prints only the preview pages, not the maps or policies & issues documents themselves. For tips on printing maps and other types of  files, see "How to deal with graphics, postscript files and large tables " below.

The "save" button allows you to save the information in "My ReliefWeb" to build your own on-line archive for easier reference. The "email" button lets you forward the information to your colleagues along with your comments.

If you prefer to save information on your own computer, you can use the "Download.zip" tool to save multiple documents, reference maps and financial tracking tables, etc. as a zip file. To use this function, click on the "Download.zip" link on the relevant country or emergency page.

Zip files cannot be viewed on-line. Click the link to get a dialog-box which allows you to download the file (Save file..), and unzip it with WinZip to view it on your computer.

Alternatively, you can save a document or map on your own computer by selecting "Save As" in your browser's file menu. If you prefer to save only the document text, copy it from the screen and paste it into a word processor file.

How to find basic facts and travel information on a country

From each country page, the "Country Profile" link leads you to a collection of external links organized by categories such as "County Profiles" and "Governments and Politics."

You will also find on each country page a link to "Travel Info" which lists external links in categories such as "Languages" and "Weather."

ReliefWeb carefully selects and updates these links to ensure that they are relevant and useful for relief professionals.

How to get best results with Internet browsers

Recommended browsers and browser versions:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. (download from http://home.microsoft.com/.)

Other browsers which support HTML 4.0

How to speed up the loading of documents

If you face problems with access speed, the problem may be with network connections, busy time on international networks or the speed of your own equipment.

Select a good time: morning in Europe is better for connections than late afternoon or evening when American users are also connected to the Internet in large numbers. The peak hours for traffic on the Internet are between 2 to 6 UTC.

Check that your browser settings have enough cache memory reserved for quick reloading of pages.

Set a proxy server if available (consult your LAN administrator or Internet service provider about this). You get more local storage capacity, and some documents may be found locally in the proxy if someone else using the same proxy has visited our site recently.

Before loading a graphics file (like a large map) make sure that your network connection is fast enough and your computer has enough capacity. (These are relative values. Closing any additional software and graphics if you run Windows 3.11 would also help)

How to deal with graphics, postscript files and large tables

Most of our maps and policies & issues documents are in PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format). You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view and print these files. You can download it for free from the Adobe web site. The link to download the Acrobat Reader is also provided in each policy & issue document (but not in maps).

While you should be able to print policies and issues documents in PDF without much difficulty, some maps are in large scale and you may have to wait a while for the document to open. Other map files are in JPEG and GIF which are the format best known by Web browsers, and also in WMF (Windows metafile) format for downloading and local editing.

Postscript (EPS) is a file format developed by Adobe and used by high-end printers. You need to have software and a printer capable of interpreting Postscript files to be able to view, edit and print them.

Some of our tables and maps are too large to fit on the normal screen or to print on an A4 paper. If available, a large monitor helps.

Sometimes graphics colours or pictures may not display correctly on your monitor. If your monitor has only 16-colours, it is not enough for many pictures. In case of 256 colours display, you may run out of colours as well, if one picture uses all codes of the colour palette (like photographs often do). Other pictures then have to adapt to that one, which usually gives a less than satisfactory result. Some browsers do not handle graphics well: to correct the situation, load and install (or buy) one of the recommended browsers from the Web.

Browsers handle graphics and tables slightly differently. Though we make an effort to standardize graphs and tables, those from other sources may follow unique coding practices which result in diverse formats.