Relief Web (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

http://www.reliefweb.int

ReliefWeb is an electronic clearinghouse for those needing timely information on humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters – designed specifically to help the humanitarian community improve its response to emergencies. 

Searchable website offers daily updates on complex emergencies and natural disasters, and has extensive country background information.  Large Directory of Humanitarian agencies provides contact information and websites for UN agencies, Governmental organizations, NGOs, academic and resource organizations. Library provides an online archive of humanitarian, human rights and development reference documents related to crisis situations and humanitarian response.

http://www.reliefweb.int/training/index.html Humanitarian Assistance Training Inventory contains information on training activities and manuals of many different organizations.  Search by organization, date, country, or keyword.  Keywords include refugee, emergency management, shelter/site planning, logistics, early warning, and coordination.  Links to other training databases and funding resources are also available.

http://www.reliefweb.int/hcic/ Humanitarian Community Information Center (HCIC) promotes and facilitates coordination by serving as an information focal point for local and international NGOs, UN and other inter-governmental agencies, donors and KFOR for Kosovo relief operations. Their website offers information on a variety of topics related to the Kosovar effort including access to their GIS/Map and Data coordination unit, which provides information on pcodes, GIS and other map technologies.

• http://www.reliefweb.int/hcic/maps/pcodes.htm Pcodes, Spatial Data Standards for Kosovo provides information on what Pcodes are and how they are used.

http://www.reliefweb.int/telecoms/ Emergency TelecommunicationsInformation and resources available for the provision of emergency telecommunications during relief operations. Includes an introduction to general information on emergency telecommunications and links.  Operational and technical information includes manuals, documents, reports, and links to related sites and suppliers.  Trainings provides information on different trainings, conferences, and provides access to training manuals (some on line, others are orderable).

• http://www.reliefweb.int/telecoms/tampere/index.html Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations.
• http://www.reliefweb.int/telecoms/intro/wget.html The Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET) provides information about group, email subscription for updates, and links to participants.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

http://www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/index.html

OCHA has the mandate to coordinate UN assistance in humanitarian crises that go beyond the capacity and mandate of any single humanitarian agency.

OCHA has the mandate to coordinate UN assistance in humanitarian crises that go beyond the capacity and mandate of any single humanitarian agency.

Website contains information on agency and its activities.  Links to News includes  Latest Reports and Publications, which lists manuals, directories, handbooks, and other OCHA publications on disaster management, protection, coordination, complex emergencies, and internal displacement.  Humanitarian Assistance Training Inventory offers access to a large database of UN and NGO training information and materials, and it also offers links to other training databases. 

http://www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/pub/idp_gp/idp.html Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

www.unhcr.ch

UNHCR is mandated by the United Nations to lead and coordinate international action for the world-wide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems.

Web site provides information about UNHCR, programs, and activities; as well as general refugee information and news.  The website is worth browsing on one’s own and the home page is pretty descriptive for its categories.

The world offers map and text-based access to country-specific information about refugees. Issues offers a topic-specific route to articles about refugee children, the environment, women's issues.  Evaluation and Policy Analysis offers access to UNHCR reports that can be searched by country, theme, or date.  Statistics related to crisis situations and UNHCR and partner efforts are also available.

http://www.unhcr.ch/news/news.htm News includes press releases, news archives, new publications, briefing news, and country updates. UNHCR in the News contains the 100 latest news stories on UNHCR and refugees from around the world.

http://www.unhcr.ch/pubs/pubs.htm Publications offers online access to Refugees magazine and other UNHCR publications.  Also click on to reference which is an addition to the UN publications page which provides links to working papers and other documents.

http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/welcome.htm REFWORLD – a collection of full-text databases representing the most comprehensive and reliable refugee information resource available.  UNCHR and UN documents as well as an impressive refugee literature search.

• http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/pubs/rsq.htm Refugee Survey Quarterly serves as an authoritative source for current refugee and country information. Each issue is a combination of country reports, documents, reviews and abstracts of refugee-related literature.

http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/refworld/unhcr/hcspeech/menu.htm Speeches of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees includes a speech by former High Commissioner Sadako Ogata on “Telecommunications in the Service of Humanitarian Assistance”.

http://ww.the-ecentre.net Regional Centre for Emergency Training in International Humanitarian Response in Tokyo, Japan.