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OCHA’s Advocacy and Information Management Branch (AIMB) is made up of several sections and units, as well as special projects, which together strategically promote humanitarian advocacy, public information and information management.
 As the focal point for advocacy within OCHA, its Advocacy and Public Information Sections (APIS) in New York and Geneva work to raise awareness and support for humanitarian action. They do so in different ways, with diverse groups of stakeholders, by carrying out advocacy campaigns and implementing public information strategies. The section in New York also is responsible for the OCHA Online website.
Within headquarters, AIMB information functions are shared among several units including the Information Analysis Section, which incorporates the ReliefWeb project, the Field Information Support project and the Information Technology Section. ReliefWeb and the Field Information Support projects both facilitate information exchange by leveraging the Internet, geographic information systems, databases and other tools.
ReliefWeb is the central web gateway to information on humanitarian response, updated 24 hours a day - by teams in New York, Geneva and Kobe - and covering some 40 ongoing crises. ReliefWeb content is sourced from a diverse group of more than 1,000 organizations and the site receives over 1,000,000 hits per day, from an audience including actors and decision-makers within the humanitarian community. The site also includes a map centre, virtual library and calendar of training events.
Visit ReliefWeb at http://www.reliefweb.int
Send material for publication on ReliefWeb to: submit@reliefweb.int
Subscribe to ReliefWeb’s email bulletins at: http://www.reliefweb.int/viaemail
The Field Information Support (FIS) project strengthens and facilitates the use of data and information in humanitarian operations. FIS designs and builds systems that manage the collection, analysis and dissemination of field information, and leads inter-agency initiatives to establish common methods and standards for information exchange and operations support. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee has designated FIS the steward of Humanitarian Information Centers, a common service provided during large scale emergencies, and FIS serves as the secretariat for the Geographic Information Support Teams (GIST), a corps of information specialists from UN and donor agencies that develop and promote the use of data standards. FIS is also responsible for helping OCHA define its information management strategy in the field and for providing information management support to OCHA's many field offices.
The Integrated Regional Information Networks, IRIN, a humanitarian news service, pioneered the use of Internet technology to gather information cheaply and efficiently on some of the remotest, most underdeveloped places in the world, and to deliver information to such locations. It is a free service that endeavours to strengthen universal access to timely, strategic and non-partisan information so as to enhance the capacity of the humanitarian community to understand, respond to and avert emergencies. Covering 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, eight in Central Asia and, most recently, Iraq, IRIN provides information on areas, themes and issues that tend to be neglected or underreported by mainstream media.
IRIN also supports local efforts at conflict resolution and reconciliation by countering misinformation and propaganda. IRIN projects aimed at ensuring that local populations have access to relevant and credible information include its Kiswahili service, IRIN Radio and PlusNews, IRIN’s HIV/AIDS service.
Finally, the Information Technology Section is responsible for inter-agency coordination in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) area, and provides strategic advice, tools and technical support to staff and the humanitarian community.
* Formerly known as the Advocacy, External Relations and Information Management Branch (AERIMB)
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APIS - Advocacy and Public Information Section
FIS - Field Information Support
ReliefWeb
IRIN - Integrated Regional Information Networks
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