Tom briefs the group from Geneva over an online conference.We had a live briefing session over Skype with Tom C and Laura H who were based in Geneva on Friday 3rd October. It was a very successful conference meeting in that Tom C communicated clearly to the group and was concise with his speech. When is come to contacts with clients, the effectiveness of the methods of communication is very important.
Below is a summary of the meeting but the whole 45 minutes-long conference session transcribed by Laura Collins is available. [see Conference Call pdf]
Shelter Centre is a new flavour of NGO - it’s a sector support NGO – and this means that it is not actively operational but in the background helping a range of aid agencies to address humanitarian shelter with operational guidelines, community practice tools, resources of meetings and training.
All of Shelter Centre’s work is open source, all the work is ‘share-wear’ so to speak which is a somewhat new approach unlike many other organisations who publish their own brand.
It is important to realise that the state of the Humanitarian Shelter Sector is far behind the state of other sectors of humanitarian response. These sectors are like departments for example the sanitation sector, logistics, health, nutrition.
Shelter Centre has been framework funded by DFID, the Department for International Development of the British Government over 5 years.
All of Shelter Centre’s work is open source, all the work is ‘share-wear’ so to speak which is a somewhat new approach unlike many other organisations who publish their own brand.
It is important to realise that the state of the Humanitarian Shelter Sector is far behind the state of other sectors of humanitarian response. These sectors are like departments for example the sanitation sector, logistics, health, nutrition.
Shelter Centre has been framework funded by DFID, the Department for International Development of the British Government over 5 years.
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/
There are two Shelter Meetings held each year, on in Geneva and the other in Brussels. At these meetings are representatives from all the major UN agencies, NGOs, IOs and donors as well as academics to discuss how to prioritise and progress activities for the collected Shelter Sector of response. Participation is free.
One of the main delivery tools of Shelter Centre is the website which is intended as an everyday of the week continuation of the Shelter Meeting.
Consequently the internet is wonderful as a resource for the aid business but to date we had websites which either tried to sell you a goat to get funding or they try to push information. The sort of face-book, discursive resources really are not there and we feel this is a great shame, a missed opportunity and
Shelter Centre has developed one of the first web 2.0 websites for the humanitarian community which is going live on the 10th October 2008. This has been developed by one of the leading open source software developers in DRUPAL, an organisation called Development Seed. Another organisation from the birthplace of DRUPAL is the open source content management system based in Brussels called Crimson.
The main aim of the website is to provide reference material for aid agencies that require information out on the field. These include technical guidelines, reports and case studies. The website will also be used to pin-point and connect different aid workers located in the same areas.
There are two Shelter Meetings held each year, on in Geneva and the other in Brussels. At these meetings are representatives from all the major UN agencies, NGOs, IOs and donors as well as academics to discuss how to prioritise and progress activities for the collected Shelter Sector of response. Participation is free.
One of the main delivery tools of Shelter Centre is the website which is intended as an everyday of the week continuation of the Shelter Meeting.
Consequently the internet is wonderful as a resource for the aid business but to date we had websites which either tried to sell you a goat to get funding or they try to push information. The sort of face-book, discursive resources really are not there and we feel this is a great shame, a missed opportunity and
Shelter Centre has developed one of the first web 2.0 websites for the humanitarian community which is going live on the 10th October 2008. This has been developed by one of the leading open source software developers in DRUPAL, an organisation called Development Seed. Another organisation from the birthplace of DRUPAL is the open source content management system based in Brussels called Crimson.
The main aim of the website is to provide reference material for aid agencies that require information out on the field. These include technical guidelines, reports and case studies. The website will also be used to pin-point and connect different aid workers located in the same areas.
Some other resources: (provided by Foxwell)
The Martin Centre in Cambridge (research into disaster relief and development)ITGD – http://www.practicalaction.org/
The Martin Centre in Cambridge (research into disaster relief and development)ITGD – http://www.practicalaction.org/
Matthew’s book – appropriate building methods or similar bibliography.
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