United Nations USG, Valerie Amos to address Humanitarian Conference

United Arab Emirates, March 13th 2011: The United Nations Under–Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ms. Valerie Amos, has confirmed her participation in the eighth edition of Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition (DIHAD), which will be held from 28 to 30 March 2011, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

Ms. Amos has held several important positions such as the Leader of the House of Lords and the Secretary of State for International Development to name a few. She will deliver a keynote speech during the opening ceremony of DIHAD, which has the theme “New Technologies: How These Impact Humanitarian and Development Operations.”

“The humanitarian system has embraced technology,” Ms. Amos said. ”We use it to assist with contingency planning and to run our systems and processes. Improving the engagement between the humanitarian and technology communities can revolutionise the way we work. That is why DIHAD is so important–it is a special gathering where humanitarians can be creative and innovative.”

According to Ms. Amos, the year 2010 was unprecedented both for the number and scale of natural disasters, including the devastating Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods, as well as lesser-publicised disasters elsewhere. These were in addition to long-running complex emergencies such as Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which also demanded greater attention. Moreover global shocks including population growth, resource scarcity and volatile food and fuel prices tipped many of the poorest and most vulnerable people into crisis.

As a result, 11 billion dollars were required in 2010 to meet humanitarian needs on the ground. Thousands of organisations were involved, often working in highly insecure environments, and facing access challenges and increasing demands for improved accountability from a growing donor base.

“People in Haiti were pulled out of the rubble on the strength of geo-located text messages,” Ms. Amos said. “The mobile phone is ubiquitous, Twitter saves lives, crowd-sourcing develops real time maps, and SMS is being used as an early warning device. Facebook is connecting victims of disasters in ways never seen before; YouTube includes disaster risk reduction public education messages.”

Technology can assist humanitarian activists to improve accountability to populations in need. The DIHAD Conference will also discuss the impact of new technologies on coordination and information management and will also look into ways new technologies are assisting disaster prone countries with capacity building and preparedness. DIHAD will also reveal how -properly harnessed- new mobile communications tools can provide humanitarian agencies with much of the information that they require in order to directly target assistance in the most useful way and respond to the real needs of affected people.