OCHA Launches a New Spanish-language Website for Humanitarian Information

Redhum is a virtual tool that provides easy access through the Internet to updated humanitarian information from the Latin American region, allowing for better disaster preparation and response.

Its objective is the identification of the main humanitarian actors that produce relevant information, such as contacts, maps, reports, and activities in the region. In addition, Redhum sets out to strengthen its network of partners and to facilitate public access to humanitarian information. This allows for wider dissemination of humanitarian guidelines, technical documents, and best practices, as well as linking to materials available through other regional initiatives such as WebCoe, CRID, and Predecan.

Redhum is operated mainly by the interagency regional group for emergencies (RedLac), CEPREDENAC, CRID, NGOs and other actors, and coordinated by OCHA. It is financed by the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. An information officer will be located in each country to work with the national disaster response system.

The Beta version for Central America will be available in July through www.redhum.org. For additional information contact: haughtond@un.org.

ISDR Presents PreventionWeb

The ISDR Secretariat, in its support of the Hyogo Framework for Action, is developing an information portal for disaster risk reduction (DDR) called PreventionWeb. Its primary purpose is to facilitte the work of professionals involved in disster risk reduction and facilitate an understanding of the subject by non-specialists.

PreventionWeb aims to provide a common platform for institutions to get connected, exchange experiences, and share information on DDR. The system will be designed to allow distributed data entry, as well as provide options for content syndication.

The site will be updated daily, and contain DDR news, initiatives, event calendars, online discussions, contact directories, policy documents, training events, jobs, terminology, country profiles, and fact sheets, as well as audio and video content. Visit the site at www.preventionweb.net.