Why is Humanitarian Information important?

Access to timely and accurate information is essential to making relief efforts more effective. The HIC has been established to provide you with access to that information - and to help you to share your information more widely with the rest of the relief community.  But access to information is only part of the story.  Our goal is to help the humanitarian community improve the management of information, by making better use of basic ‘building blocks’ such as place codes and links to mapping.

  

How do you decide which information sources to use on your website? What are your selection criteria for documents, maps, job opportunities, links, etc.?

One of our objectives is to provide reliable and relevant information to the humanitarian community in a timely manner. We therefore focus on information from primary sources, such as humanitarian organizations providing relief or research institutions analyzing conflicts and humanitarian policy issues. We supplement information gaps with reputable secondary sources, such as the media. We then carefully select the information to be posted to the site with the aim that the information must help bring relief or humanitarian assistance to the people in need.

 

Some of your maps depict disputed borders and territories. What is your policy in this regard?

The aim is to represent the correct territorial demarcation of any given country or area. Such material is resourced through reputable professional sources. The designations employed and the presentation of material of this type do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delineation of its frontiers or boundaries.

 

The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the UN.

 

May we use OCHA maps in our publication?

For permission to publish maps created by OCHA, please contact us. If you would like to use maps produced by an external source, please contact the source directly for permission.

 

How can I donate money, food, clothes, etc. to victims of natural disasters and emergencies in general?

We suggest that you find out what donations humanitarian organizations present in (Country Name) are accepting by visiting their web sites. You can find which organizations are assisting with the emergency towards which you would like to donate by consulting the Contact Directory.