Enhancement of National Emergency Telecommunication Plans and Coordination to Save Lives

Despite great technological progress and increased recognition of the importance of ICTs for all phases of disaster management, many countries in the world are not able to fully benefit from the opportunities of ICTs to save people's lives. Many countries lack disaster telecommunications preparedness plans; in others, these plans are not fully integrated into overall disaster strategies. Many countries also lack awareness about the opportunities of implementing early warning monitoring and alerting systems. In terms of post-disaster management, limited international cooperation and coordination often slow down the deployment processes of emergency telecommunication equipment. In particular, the international humanitarian community faces a number of challenges during emergencies with regards to transportation and importation of emergency telecommunication equipment. Requests have been made to ITU to provide support in various areas related to importation, licensing, and frequency allocation during emergency situations. Within the ITU Framework for Cooperation in Emergencies (IFCE), ITU-BOT has built a concept to develop a decision support tool to improve the deployment, importation, licensing of equipment, and frequency allocation??. 

1. Assessment of Emergency Telecommunication Developments: For at least 2 developing ITU (sub) regions, existing needs assessments were reviewed, and assessments were carried out to identify key stakeholders, activities, challenges, and priority areas to save lives through the use of ICTs. 

2. Greater Preparedness for Emergencies: Development or improvement of National Emergency Telecommunications Plans (NETPs) aimed at supporting the outcomes of the national disaster management plans, with at least 6 new countries across the ITU regions developing NETP. 

3. Established/Strengthened Partnerships and Cooperation: At the national, regional, and international level, at least 4 regional and/or international organizations contributed to/partnered in the project's implementation, with at least 2 countries per region identifying or starting the process of identifying a national coordination mechanism. 

4. Greater Human and Institutional Capacity: Through national and regional workshops, training material, and courses aimed at building and strengthening a sustainable human and institutional capacity in emergency telecommunications, including at least one global event for stakeholder feedback. 

5. Better Preparedness through Early Warning Systems: Guidelines on the development and implementation of early-warning systems. 

6. More Efficient Deployment of Emergency Telecommunication Equipment: Through a web-based coordination platform??.