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Responsive information services can be implemented through different approaches and at varied scale depending on the context, resources, and needs.
At a minimum, a responsive information service meets the following standards (See Figure 1):
- A ‘two-way’ channel for communication: At least one communication channel where two-way conversations can happen – meaning that people affected by crisis who need information can ask questions, and you can answer those questions using that channel. Responsive information services might also use ‘one-way’ communication channels to proactively share information on trending information needs.
- Continuous data collection and analysis on information needs: Programs are designed based on evidence of information needs, barriers, and preferences for communication and information production is driven by client feedback. Questions from clients over two-way communication channels are tracked and analyzed – potentially in combination with information needs assessments or other data – to identify frequently asked questions, pressing information needs, and track rumors, with the purpose of informing an iterative informational content production strategy.
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Human resources for two-way communication, service mapping, and content production:
- Frontline communicators who listen to the questions that clients ask over two-way communication channels and respond to those questions, having conversations to help clients navigate the information you are providing and safely escalating acute protection concerns;
- Service mapping focal points that map available essential services that clients need information on; and
- Information production focal points who work on researching the answers to client questions and produce informational content in the formats most appropriate for your context (for example, articles, videos, explainers/FAQ sheets, infographics, videos, radio programs, etc.), both to prepare frontline communicators to respond to the questions that clients ask, and to proactively share information on those topics with your audience.
The scale and quality of responsive information services at the start of a crisis is entirely dependent on existing preparedness, capacity, and resources. There is no one size-fits-all scaling model, and this may look different for different types of frontline actors using this toolkit and in different types of emergency contexts.
No matter the context, teams should focus on meeting the above minimum standards at the scale and through the approaches which are possible to implement safely and effectively, while working to strengthen inclusion, coordination, and trust. For an illustrative example, see Table 1.
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- Tool 1. RISE Onboarding Training
- Video. Orientation to Responsive Information Services in Emergencies
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Figure 1. What does a responsive information service look like?
Table 1. Examples: Responsive Information Services in Emergencies
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Signpost – A global open consortium for responsive information services led by IRC |
Signpost (https://www.signpost.ngo/) is an interagency project that creates digital help centers to empower people impacted by conflict, disasters, poverty and violence. Driven by community needs, these help centers allow clients to access essential services and make informed decisions on the issues that matter most to them. This toolkit draws heavily on approaches, tools, and lessons learned from Signpost. The 2015 humanitarian crisis in Greece in reflected a common humanitarian challenge: a rapid arrival of refugees from multiple locations, speaking multiple languages, traumatized and trying to stay safe in a new environment. While people had arrived with smartphones and their own strategies and capacities, they were met with megaphones, policy jargon, and an information vacuum. Uncoordinated and poorly resourced information and communication models were causing riots, undermining adherence to beneficial policies, heightening distress and exploitation, and sowing distrust and discord between refugee populations and state and humanitarian providers. IRC and Mercy Corps came together to try something new: centering journalism and social media expertise to develop action-oriented, easy to understand information based on trends in client questions and feedback, deploying this information rapidly through clients’ preferred communication channels, and hiring refugees themselves to help others navigate the information they needed with empathy, safety, and trust. Signpost also began to define success differently: shifting from whether the information we provided led to a person to access a service we were providing or adopt a behavior we recommended - to whether the information we provided was useful in making informed decisions on the issues that mattered most to clients. Over time, this initiative ended up reaching hundreds of thousands of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers and spread to Italy, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Examples of Signpost initiatives globally:
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Emergency Communications in Haiti – Radio 1 |
Prior to the 2010 earthquake, Radio 1 was one of the biggest radio stations in Haiti – one of only a handful that broadcasts nationwide and to the Haitian diaspora. It was also one of the few left largely unscathed by the earthquake: its internet connection, remarkably, survived. One of the first staff members to go back to the station hours after the quake was DJ Carel Pedre, a well-known broadcaster and social media enthusiast with a strong Facebook presence and a Twitter feed followed by thousands. Carel’s visibility on social media and radio broadcasts told his listeners that he was alive and the station was functional. As a result, Radio 1 was besieged by listeners wanting to share their stories, tell people they were alive or appeal for information. Carel also began to receive hundreds of messages from across Haiti and overseas on Facebook and Twitter feed, asking for his help to locate friends and family. To respond, Carel set up a multi-platform information system that could consolidate all the incoming requests, attempting to respond to them systematically and sharing the information collected with his broadcast and social media audiences. The system involved four friends with laptops all logged into Carel’s Facebook (receiving over 100 messages a day) and Twitter feeds, who compiled requests and responded to messages. This was in addition to a team of producers who interviewed all those arriving at the station (an average of 50 people every hour). Each day, the compiled list of people who were being sought was given to the office courier who went out on his motorbike to search for them. Simultaneously, the teams uploaded this information to Facebook, relayed it on Twitter and broadcast it on air. The whole system ran for several weeks without any support from the international aid effort. (BBC Policy Briefing – Still left in the dark? How people in emergencies use communication to survive – and how humanitarian agencies can help, 2012) |
| Sri Lanka Tsunami Call Center – TAFREN | In Sri Lanka, a government body created to coordinate response to the 2004 tsunami - the Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN) - established a call centre in the weeks after the disaster. This operation was outsourced to Bates, a local advertising company with experience in call centres. Over a week, Bates trained a five-person team to answer the most common questions put forward by survivors and advertised through local papers and radio stations. The centre received hundreds of calls, an analysis of which showed that most were related to housing and livelihoods and concerned basic requests for assistance. Although no independent evaluation was carried out, Bates reported they were able to provide satisfactory answers to over three quarters of callers without the need for further referral. The project was funded by the World Bank. (BBC Policy Briefing – Left in the dark, The unmet need for information in humanitarian responses, 2008) |
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Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh Information Hubs and Information Service Centres – CWC Working Group |
From 2017-2019, Bangladesh welcomed nearly 1 million forcibly-displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN), who required immediate, large-scale humanitarian services to address their basic needs. Multi-stakeholder needs assessments identified that the majority of the new arrivals either had little knowledge of how and where to access services or were not aware of services being available or provided to them. They also needed rapid and complete information and knowledge on key lifesaving/priority practices. As part of the response, the members of CwC Working Group ran around 90 “Information Hubs (Info Hub)/Information Service Centre (ISC)” and are operating multi-sectoral information hubs, which aim to provide information to affected people as well as provide a route for community members to ask questions, give feedback or lodge complaints about services they are receiving. (Communication with Communities Working Group Cox’s Bazar – Standard Operating Procedures for Information Hub and Information Service Center, 2019) |
| South Sudan Boda Boda Talk Talk Humanitarian Information Service - Internews |
In February 2014 just weeks after the conflict began in South Sudan, Internews launched Boda Boda Talk Talk (BBTT). BBTT is a twice-weekly community-led audio program produced to radio broadcast standards. However, rather than broadcast on the airwaves to a wide public audience, the 25-minute program is recorded onto tools such as USB sticks or SD cards and played on speakers that revolve around the IDP site on the back of quad bikes. This keeps the programs hyper-local to their environment in context, content and geographical reach. The quad bikes visit public Listening Stops where people can hear the programs as they go about their daily business. Programs are also heard by dedicated Community Listening Groups and played at health clinics and other Static Listening sites managed by the community themselves or by partner aid organizations. The BBTT-HIS is made by Community Correspondents recruited, trained and mentored from the displaced communities themselves, by skilled Humanitarian Journalism Trainers. This ensures that the language of vital humanitarian information is effectively communicated, and that the content is accurate and relevant. Information Officers also recruited from the displaced community not only monitor the quality of the output as measured by the audience of the displaced population, but they also keep their eyes and ears to the ground to ensure a wide spectrum of community voices influence new upcoming program content. BBTTHIS Community Correspondents work like Citizen Journalists; they create engaging content by gathering voices, questions and concerns from the community about the humanitarian aid response – turning them into features and stories.(Internews South Sudan Humanitarian Learning Collection – Boda Boda Talk Talk Module, 2017) |