Skip to main content

Home/ Americas-MOAS/ Group items tagged ICT

Rss Feed Group items tagged

oliviaodon

Recommendations To Enhance Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Aspects of U... - 0 views

  • While ICTs are an essential component in ensuring information flows during a disaster, it is often the case that ICTs are not considered by countries and organizations to be a ‘critical infrastructure’ in the context of international disaster preparedness plans and frameworks. Because of this, adequate priority is not often given by countries to the development and pre-planning of ICT resources in advance of a disaster, nor the restoration of ICT systems and networks following a disaster.
  • agencies responsible for international disaster and humanitarian response should formally recognize telecommunications / ICTs as a critical infrastructure for international disaster preparedness, response and recovery planning, and should encourage such recognition by other governments, NGOs and international organizations involved in disaster relief and recovery.
  • Nearly all recent major global disasters have shown the importance of first responders being able to communicate among each other and provide information to affected populations. Moreover, communications systems enable citizens to search for and confirm the status of their loved ones, and to offer up both resources and information about survivors and damage using channels such as SMS and social media, and broadcast technology.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Part of recognizing ICTs as a critical infrastructure is to ensure their advance incorporation into a country’s disaster management framework or plan, including pre-positioning of ICT resources and identification of personnel that may be required to use or restore those resources.
  •  
    This passage discusses how ICTs can be used by countries for disaster preparedness.
oliviaodon

ICT at COP21: Enormous Potential to Mitigate Emissions - 0 views

  • ICTs—including the Internet, mobile phones, geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imaging, remote sensing, and data analytics—could reduce yearly global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) 20% by 2030, thus holding them at their 2015 level.
  • ICTs are also critical for climate change adaptation, providing vital tools for all phases of the disaster risk management cycle. Although the opportunities for ICTs to support the climate change agenda are enormous, much work remains in order to realize them. Governments of developing countries must be further encouraged to include ICTs in their national climate change policies.
  • By 2030, ICTs could eliminate the equivalent of 12.1 billion tons of CO2 per year in five sectors—transport (30% of the total reduction), manufacturing (22%), agriculture and food (17%), buildings (16%), and energy (15%).
oliviaodon

ICT for Disaster Management/ICT for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Preparedness - ... - 0 views

  • The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) identifies several key parties that play major roles in the disaster management process, especially in disaster warning (UN/ISDR, 2006).
  • Communities, particularly those most vulnerable, are vital to people-centred early warning systems. Their input into system design and their ability to respond ultimately determine the extent of risk associated with natural hazards. Communities should be aware of hazards and potential negative impacts to which they are exposed and be able to take specific actions to minimize the threat of loss or damage.
  • Local governments should have considerable knowledge of the hazards to which their communities are exposed.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The private sector has a diverse role to play in early warning, including developing early warning capabilities in their own organizations. The private sector is also essential as they are usually better equipped to implement ICT-based solutions. The private sector has a large untapped potential to help provide skilled services in the form of technical manpower, know-how, or donations of goods or services (in-kind and cash), especially for the communication, dissemination and response elements of early warning.
  • Considered the most traditional electronic media used for disaster warning, radio and television have a valid use. The effectiveness of these two media is high because even in developing countries and rural environments where the tele-density is relatively low, they can be used to spread a warning quickly to a broad population.
  • Telephones can play an important role in warning communities about the impending danger of a disaster.
  • The role Internet, email and instant messages can play in disaster warning entirely depends on their penetration within a community and usage by professionals such as first responders, coordinating bodies, etc.
  •  
    This article discusses how ICTS can be used to warn a population of oncoming disasters to prevent more damage from occurring. 
oliviaodon

PLOS Medicine: Integration of Information Technologies in Clinical Studies in Nicaragua - 1 views

  • PDCS follows 3,800 children aged two to twelve with the aim of characterizing the natural history of dengue transmission, obtaining biological samples for vaccine safety research, and establishing appropriate infrastructure for future dengue vaccine trials.
  • PDCS operations are based in a Health Center where cohort children receive all primary care and are screened for dengue.
  • frequent interruptions in electrical, phone, and Internet service, high temperatures and humidity, and the absence of street names and house addresses were obvious obstacles to be overcome.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • To overcome these challenges, we implemented a series of low-cost yet cutting-edge ICTs.
  • we found that the use of these technologies greatly streamlines information flow and accessibility, improves the quality of data and QC procedures, and reduces operational costs. As a result, we have witnessed the tremendous potential for using ICTs to bolster the public health infrastructure in resource-limited developing country settings
  •  
    This article emphasized the use of ICTs in healthcare to overcome common obstacles in developing countries.
oliviaodon

What is ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies)? - Definition... - 0 views

  • ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them
  • ability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations.
  • a means of bridging the digital divide.
Cecilia Ergueta

The Digital Divide: Closing the Gap between Access and Innovation in Latin America - COHA - 0 views

  • With sustained growth blessing the region, Latin America found itself with an expansive business sector and a demanding public sector, all looking to technology for answers to big social issue
  • Most Latin American nations could be described as straddling the gap of the digital divide in a sustained balancing act.
  • “digital divide” has become shorthand for any gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas with regards to both their opportunities and access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • the digital divide in Latin America, even in an international context, always has been about more than just access to the Internet, or a computer.
  • a big majority of poorer areas within countries—the periphery of the periphery—continue to live in the dark, some with the equipment (machinery) but not the tools (knowledge) to promote  the same socioeconomic empowerment of their richer counterparts
  • a majority of the targeted populations have not become integrated like their more affluent neighbors
  • a problem of knowledge and sustainable innovation
  • over the last 10 years, the digital divide has been shrinking in terms of accessibility based on the numbers of fixed phone lines, mobile subscribers, and Internet users around the world.
  • Few reports can be found focusing on specific countries within the region, leading most international analysts to base their generalizations based on the experience on similar groups of countries
  • Unprecedented economic growth now gives Latin America the opportunity to address some of its most pressing need
  • opportunities in Latin America for sales growth are considered massive, especially for equipment manufacturers and as well as for telecom services providers
  • government-sponsored programs focus mostly on expanding access
  • computer ownership continues to rise with unprecedented speed, even if Internet access proliferation follows at much reduced speed.
  • policy initiatives have remained access-obsessed without evolving to tackle some of the effects of persistent inequality characteristic of the region
  • Dr. Sanabria successfully managed to implement ICTs to give medical advice to remote, marginalized communities
  • an understanding of how technology penetration works can, with some innovation, breed sustainable and meaningful development
  • the work of Fundación Proyecto Maniapure and other organizations like it are having a more lasting impact in alleviating poverty, health deficits, and inequality, than perhaps some nationally sponsored projects that are bringing more technology to communities, but are not quite putting it to its full possible use.
oliviaodon

Leveraging Technology for Disaster Risk Management - 0 views

  • Since 1980, the economic costs of disasters in developing countries amounted to $1.2 trillion, equivalent to about a third of all official development aid.
  • Over that same period, low-income countries accounted for only 9 percent of the total number of disasters, but 48 percent of the fatalities.
  •  
    This article highlights the need of developing countries for ICT to improve the risk of fatality and cost of natural disasters. 
Cecilia Ergueta

How digital connectivity is transforming Latin America | World Economic Forum - 0 views

  • 90% percent of the region is covered by mobile broadband
  • only about 50% of those people are “connected” and online
  • three primary barriers to internet use: a lack of locally-relevant content, a lack of digital skills and limited affordability among segments of the population.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • there is a direct correlation between internet and the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in creating jobs and reducing poverty
  • GSMA’s study found a lack of local content as the most important factor for a lack of connectivity – more than affordability or coverage – in most of Latin America
  • They are unaware of how much research, data, health information and other tools can be accessed online
Cecilia Ergueta

The Internet of Things: The Next Digital Divide for Latin America? : World : Latin Post - 0 views

  • Latin America is currently poised to fall behind in the next big evolution of the Internet.
  • last year Latin America as a whole grew in IP traffic by 25 percent, with traffic growth for the mobile Internet at an incredible 87 percent.
  • things are not looking as bright for the growth of the Internet of Things there.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Fixed broadband and mobile Internet (measured by both adoption and speed) and overall data traffic in Latin America are all projected to grow,
  • Latin America is closing the gap, especially in mobile, with the rest of the developed world and nearly 400 million people will be connected in the near future.
  • Internet penetration by percentage of the population across all of Latin America is at least over 50 percent by now, which is higher than the world average
  • an emerging digital divide in the next phase of the Internet, ironically hidden by Latin America's current booming adoption of the consumer Internet.
  • Latin America isn't expected to make much progress over the near-term in the number of connected devices, especially of the M2M-variety.
  • But in Latin America, leading countries like Brazil and Mexico are expected to reach 32 percent by that year, falling behind the global average by about the same amount that the region as a whole currently surpasses global average Internet penetration today.
  • Then imagine 50 billion objects being connected together, from consumer goods to manufacturing systems, to appliances, healthcare systems, infrastructure, mass and personal transportation -- and the list goes on and on. In the future, IoT is what most of the Internet will be, and anyone left behind will be at a huge disadvantage
1 - 10 of 10
Showing 20 items per page