Tag: UN

29Jul

Teaching Global Goals

Summer is in full swing in the northern hemisphere. Some of us are building lesson and program plans for the fall season. Perhaps you are starting to think about your own: “Back to School” mantra. This means priorities, activities, goals and objectives. Well, you are not alone. The United Nations will convene to review the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). The new goals will replace the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs) with the aim to reach more people with impact.

global goals

The UN Foundation is in Doha this week hosting a media training event for reporters from around the world. The goal is to encourage hyper-local storytelling focused on the SDGs. If the SDGs are going to really reach people, then media needs to be informed and included in the journey. It was great that Ooredoo is one of the hosts.

Aaron Sherinian and UN Foundation


So, as you plan your social good activities, take a moment to consider how you will action the SDGs? How will you activate these stories as digital humanitarians? And, how will you teach people in your communities? How will it influence your programmes? It really starts with us.

Sidenote: How did I not know about the Global Daily before? Seriously, news that matters.

http://globaldaily.com/

But the UN is leaving no teaching unturned. In fact, they also are targeting children with the great big lesson.

4Jan

Coining Global and Hurricane Sandy

In December, I had the honour to present at the United Nations Spider meetings in Vienna. Here are those presentations with details notes:

Coining Global is a state of community for where Crisismapping and Digital Humanitarianism should grow:

Hurricane Sandy saw the rise of many Crisismapping projects, including the great Hot or Not test of satellite imagery. There was also a large number of Crowdmaps launched:

10Feb

OpenUN and the Future of Real-Time at SMW

The age of real-time has changed media, humanitarian aid and my life’s path. I am a community manager and communications emergency/incident manager by trade who also volunteers with digital crisis response. Social Media Week has provided great opportunities to attend events in person or participate virtually. Today I am attending OpenUN and digging into how media and crisis response organizations work with open data, real-time data and digital media changes. The way we obtain news and participate in our local and global communities is evolving. It is exciting to have my career and volunteer work merge. And, also to have the chance to learn and engage online.

The United Nations GlobalPulse is participating in Social Media Week with “Open UN: Engagement in the age of Real-Time”. #openUN is livestreaming right now.

PSFK on Future of Real-Time trends

PSFK presented their trend analysis about the future of real-time, including the example app called mappiness:

PSFK presents Future Of Real-Time
View more presentations from PSFK.

PSFK posted, free for download, their UN report on The Future of Real-Time.

Robert Kilpatrick, Director of UN Global Pulse

Robert Kilpatrick presented about UN Global Pulse and how they are working to embrace real-time information for development. He cited the opportunity for the use of citizen reporting and how the UN is researching how to collaborate with digital volunteers and communities of interest. Some of my favourite quotes from his keynote:

19Aug

World Humanitarian Day

Today is World Humanitarian Day. They honour us and the world with their self-less efforts to make the world a better place.



There are 9 main NGOs clusters that work in places of crisis
. These groups are designated by the United Nations via Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). I’ve met some amazing volunteers and staff who work on the various teams.

First, clusters dealing with service provision:
a) Logistics, chaired by the World Food Programme (WFP); and
b) Emergency Telecommunications, chaired by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as process owner, with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as the common data communications service provider and WFP as the common security telecommunications service provider.

Second, clusters dealing with relief and assistance to beneficiaries:

c) Emergency Shelter, chaired by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (for conflict-generated IDPs)
d) Health, chaired by the World Health Organisation (WHO);
e) Nutrition, chaired by UNICEF
f) Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, chaired by UNICEF. (WASH)

Third, clusters covering cross-cutting issues:

g) Early Recovery, chaired by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP);
h) Camp Coordination and Camp Management, chaired by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (for conflict-generated Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs]) and by the International Organization for Migration (for natural disasters); and
i) Protection, chaired by UNHCR (for conflict-generated IDPs).

(Details from the OCHA website: Learn more.)

Thank you for being so inspiring.

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