ITU plays a key global role in shaping thought and ways forward in the use of ICTs for disaster risk reduction and management – through the design of national emergency telecommunication plans, the setting up of early warning and monitoring systems and the provision of emergency telecommunications equipment.
ITU work in this area includes the following:
- ITU helped develop the Disaster Connectivity Map (DCM) for first responders on network outages following disasters.
- The ITU Emergency Telecommunications Roster trains ITU staff on deployment of ITU telecommunication equipment and on supporting the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster on the ground.
- The 3rd Global Forum on Emergency Telecommunications (GET-19) explored disaster risk reduction, national emergency telecommunication, infrastructure, and national coordination.
- Guide to develop a telecommunications/ ICT contingency plan for a pandemic response 2020, focused on telecommunications/ICT service delivery and business continuity in the context of a pandemic.
- Women, ICT and emergency telecommunications – opportunities and constraints (2020), exploring how the digital gender divide puts entire communities at greater risk during emergencies.
- In 2020, ITU launched guidelines for development and implementation of national emergency telecommunication plans (NETPs). Such plans have been delivered for the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Bolivia, Vanuatu, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Ecuador and Peru – and ITU continues to help these countries develop theirs: Somalia, Sudan, Solomon Islands, Dominica, Grenada and Fiji.
- ITU promotes the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), organizing regional and national workshops. CAP enables authorities to deliver early warnings and alerts to communities at risk, up to global scale.
- ITU, with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the World Meteorological Organization, launched Call to Action on Emergency Alerting, (2021), inviting partners to support countries in implementing CAP.
- ITU partnered with UNDRR, WMO, IOC-UNESCO and the World Broadcasting Unions in 2020 to develop Media Saves Lives reinforcing broadcasters’ role in the early warning chain.
- Disruptive technologies and their use in disaster risk reduction and management 2019, explored how AI, IoT and big data, robotics and drone technology are transforming disaster risk reduction.
- ITU joined the Crisis Connectivity Charter (CCC) (2019), bringing together the satellite industry and the humanitarian community in making satellite communication more available.