USE OF ICT FOR RESULT MONITORING AND EVOLUTION IN CRISIS PREVENTION AND RECOVERY

Remarks by Nardos Bekele Thomas UN Resident Coordinator

Tuesday 23rd October 2013 Safari Park Hotel

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Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to be with all of you to share ideas on how to take advantage of current technological advances to effectively carry out programme monitoring and evaluation in moments of crisis and disasters.

Indeed the World is experiencing a moment of heightened disasters ranging from cyclones, floods, earthquakes, fires, drought as well as human conflict. Last year, more than 200 million people were affected by disasters and conflict across the world. The cost of disasters in now estimated at around 300 billion dollars annually. The world has been investing in disaster prevention and recovery to assist those in need. With this investment, we have to be sure that our programs meet our objectives. One way of effectively monitoring our programming is through use of technology.

It is therefore important that we make use of recent rapid advances in innovation to collect, store, process and analyze conflict and disaster related data. This has to be done both immediately after a disaster and also as a longterm measure to help communities to quickly recover their livelihoods and lessen the impact of disasters. By collecting data on a real-time basis it makes it easier for us to carry out the monitoring and evaluation aspect in our programming and by extension improve our programme efficiency. From the United Nations System in Kenya, we have adopted cutting edge innovations in our programming as we embrace the digital age by applying innovative technologies in all aspects of our work. We believe that a lot of the
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development challenges facing our world today can be won through innovation and technology.

I am happy to note that the aims and objectives of this workshop are in line with our strategy that promotes knowledge sharing and innovation to peg the United Nations as a cutting edge thought leader at the national, regional and global level. In this regard, we are currently working with the Ministry of Information and Communication to set up County Digital Information and Innovation centers that would enable young people get easier access to information and tap into the digital revolution at the local level. We believe that technology can only work best when it touches the lives of the people.

The past few years have seen great progress in digital innovation in Africa and Kenya in particular especially on the mobile phones application. One of the most successful innovations is the use of mobile money transfer Mpesa. This has really transformed the country especially in reaching the over 50 per cent Kenyan adults who were unbanked, and facilitated the safe transfer of funds. Mpesa also facilitates up to 30% of the Gross Domestic Product and has been used as an effective fundraising tool in moments of disasters like the Westgate scenario where close to 80 million was raised to support those who were affected.

But Mpesa is not the only success in Kenya; in crisis prevention and recovery settings, the use of crowd sourcing network of www.ushahidi.com, and www.uchaguzi.com which you will be hearing a lot more in this forum, used technology during the elections as an early warning system and reporting tool to detect potential hotspots and quickly arrange support and help for those who are affected in a crisis. This helped in sharing information from the

crowd, verifying the details and responding appropriately by the authorities. In

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addition, it gives a voice to burning issues and amplifies them by describing and mapping reports. I believe this will increasing transparency and accountability through active citizen participation in the electoral process.

I urge all of us to take advantage of ICT solutions that help us to facilitate collaboration and communication among different stakeholder groups. These solutions should be simple enough to be used by the communities that have been affected. In addition for this technology to be effective, it must be brought to the bottom of the pyramid. This is the only sure way of benefiting the rural, poor and marginalized communities. And more critical is that, these solutions should be easily integrated into basic solutions like mobile phones technology, community radios as well as the internet.

Finally ladies and gentlemen, I strongly urge all of you to create networks for sharing information among each other. Information sharing will enable use prepare better for disasters and at the same time be able to predict and reduce the impact of disasters among the most vulnerable. As development and humanitarian players we should find it easy to share information with the community, government for effective programme implementation.

I thank you and wish you fruitful deliberations.