SitRep Project

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SitRep Project Situation Reports and Information
Sharing in the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA)
Elisa Oreglia John Ward Masters Final Project,
UC Berkeley School of Information Advisor, Jenna
Burrell
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BACKGROUND
Origins of our project What is a Sitrep
What is OCHA

• Preliminary research among Non-Governmental
  Organizations (NGOs) suggested difficulties and
  inefficiencies in the sitrep process
• Lack of standards
• Little support for information gathering
  sharing
• Unclear picture of emergency response
• Sitrep exploratory project in Fall 07

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BACKGROUND
Origins of our project What is a Sitrep
What is OCHA

• SITuation REPort
• Internal or public document used by agencies
  involved in emergency response
• About the situation on the ground
• Response efforts
• Usually a semi-structured Word document
  distributed via email

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BACKGROUND
Origins of our project What is a Sitrep
What is OCHA
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BACKGROUND
Origins of our project What is a Sitrep
What is OCHA
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BACKGROUND
Origins of our project What is a Sitrep
What is OCHA

• United Nations Office for the Coordination of
  Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
• facilitates, mobilizes and coordinates
  humanitarian assistance delivered by
  international and national partners to
  populations and communities in need.
• Issues public sitreps about natural and complex
  emergencies
• Currently reviewing some of its core information
  products, in particular sitreps

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OUR RESEARCH
Goals Methods

• Understand sitrep process within OCHA
• Understand the process in the wider context of
  information sharing in the field
• Propose tactical and strategic ways to clarify
  sitrep confusion

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OUR RESEARCH
Goals Methods

• Interviews with OCHA and its sitreps users
• OCHA
• 39 interviewees (8 senior managers, 31
  operational staff)
• 2 roundtables (1 Desk Officers, 1 Info Advisory)
• External users
• NGOs, 12 field officers interviewees
• Donors (governments), 2 phone roundtables

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OUR RESEARCH
Goals Methods

• Document Analysis
• 101 documents one month of OCHA sitreps
• 35 sitreps from different countries to get a
  broad understanding of field practices
• 26 sitreps to track an entire emergency sitrep
  cycle (Pakistan cyclone and flooding, Summer 2007)

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FINDINGS

Sitreps are often a source of significant
confusion, written without clear guidelines and
clear goals for unspecified audiences whose needs
are not fully understood.

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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience

• Are sitreps for sudden events or for updates on
  on-going emergencies?
• When I think sitrep, I think urgent
• (OCHA)
• We saw that there are often multiple products
  that overlap, with no clarity about what each
  product offers. Can you clarify whats a sitrep?
  (Donor)

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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience
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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience
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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience

• No guidelines about appearance

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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience

• Unclear goals for writers
• Unclear purpose for readers
• its one of the reasons why sitreps are like,
  F, I have to do a sitrep! Because the amount
  and the kind of information its like a
  ravenous beast. (NGO)

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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience

• Everybody agrees that sitreps should
  haveconsolidated on NeedsResponse-Gap

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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience

• Everybody agrees that sitreps should
  haveconsolidated on NeedsResponse-Gap

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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience

• Everybody agrees that sitreps should
  haveconsolidated on NeedsResponse-Gap

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FINDINGS
Confusion Guidelines Process Audience
- Humanitarian operators- UN agencies-
governments- donors (governments and private
entities) - the press - internal OCHA audience
- the field - headquarters
For our draft, we have a clear image of what
audience we serve, but we never asked them.
(OCHA)
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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations

• Confusion around sitreps is a symptom of a
  flawed process
• Technology from Word docs to database-driven
  reports?

A viable system must embrace not just the
technological system, but the social system the
people, organizations, and institutions
involved. (The Social Life of Information)
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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations

• Tactical decisions as quick fixes to mitigate
  the perception of chaos
• Document analysis shows similarities in sitrep
  practices at field level
• Recognize and codify these shared mental models
  - audience knows what to expect - burden on
  field to justify exceptions

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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations
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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations
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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations

• Style-guide, to give sitreps a clear OCHA brand
  and to avoid inconsistencies
• Mailing list

Theres all kinds of mailing lists on Lotus
Notes maintained by a small group of elves
(OCHA)
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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations

• Strategic decisions that OCHA should take around
  the sitrep product to clarify its role
• Role of politics in sitreps neutral numbers
  versus humanitarian advocacy
• OCHAs presence in a country depends on its good
  relations with host governments

In some sitreps, you are talking about
governments, and they can be very soft on human
rights, protection issues... Then we get
pushbacks from the NGOs whats up with OCHA and
human rights? (OCHA)
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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations

• Other strategic decisions
• Are sitrep operational documents or do they
  record the situation for external actors?
• Who is the audience?
• Whats in it for information providers and
  sitrep authors?

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MOVING FORWARD
Technology Tactics Strategy
Limitations

• Humanitarian sector is changing
• Our work heavily focused on headquarters
• Didnt talk to enough sitrep users
• Not clear about what happens in the field

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THANK YOU!
Our advisor, Jenna Burrell Our supporters, moral
and financial, Eric Kansa of ISD clinic and Tom
Kalill of Big Ideas _at_ Berkeley Noise BSG
mailing lists, for contacts and inspiration Bob
Glushko for doc analysis evangelizing Nancy Van
House Liz Goodman for feedback on proto-sitrep
project Anonymous sitrep coder stylist
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QUESTIONS?