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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.

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent, growing more severe and affecting more people than ever before. The reasons vary but include climate change, population growth and shifting habitation patterns.

Another challenge to the effectiveness of disaster management and recovery is sharing information across organizations hampered by a lack of interoperability.

Another fundamental challenge is the need to automate manual records for disaster response and humanitarian assistance organizations, which is just as important as, if somewhat less glamorous than, other critical issues affecting their readiness.

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.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $186 million contingent loan to help Nicaragua mitigate the impact that severe or catastrophic natural disasters could have on its public finances.

country is highly exposed to meteorological and geophysical threats such as earthquakes, floods, tropical storms, and volcanic eruptions. In fact, Nicaragua is the second most vulnerable country in the world to hurricanes and tropical storms, and ranks thirtieth in the world in its vulnerability to earthquakes.

This operation will help Nicaragua not only improve its financial planning but also promote the development of effective mechanisms for the comprehensive management of natural disaster risks through the Comprehensive Natural Disaster Risk Management Program (CNDRMP) required to access the proceeds of this loan. The CNDRMP promotes improvements in the identification, reduction, and financial management of risks, as well as in disaster management.

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.

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%).

5,966,798 (July 2016 est.)

mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 69%, white 17%, black 9%, Amerindian 5%

Despite being one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Nicaragua has improved its access to potable water and sanitation and has ameliorated its life expectancy, infant and child mortality, and immunization rates. However, income distribution is very uneven, and the poor, agriculturalists, and indigenous people continue to have less access to healthcare services. Nicaragua's total fertility rate has fallen from around 6 children per woman in 1980 to just above replacement level today, but the high birth rate among adolescents perpetuates a cycle of poverty and low educational attainment. Nicaraguans emigrate primarily to Costa Rica and to a lesser extent the United States. Nicaraguan men have been migrating seasonally to Costa Rica to harvest bananas and coffee since the early 20th century. Political turmoil, civil war, and natural disasters from the 1970s through the 1990s dramatically increased the flow of refugees and permanent migrants seeking jobs, higher wages, and better social and healthcare benefits. Since 2000, Nicaraguan emigration to Costa Rica has slowed and stabilized. Today roughly 300,000 Nicaraguans are permanent residents of Costa Rica - about 75% of the foreign population - and thousands more migrate seasonally for work, many illegally.

Thirty-six years after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the entrenched Somoza dynasty, Nicaraguans still fill Plaza La Fe in Managua to celebrate Liberation Day festivities every July 19

supporters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and President Daniel Ortega view the revolution as an ongoing process

The conditions for his return to power in 2007 were created by a pact he struck in 1999 with then-President Arnoldo Aleman of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC).

On September 21, the House of Representatives approved passage H.R. 5708, the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act (NICA) of 2017 that, if it becomes law, will prohibit loans by international financial institutions (“IFIs”) to the government of Nicaragua unless Nicaragua takes steps to ensure free, fair, and transparent elections as well as strengthen the rule of law.

The left-wing Sandinista government is economic and political disaster. Nicaraguan autocrat, Daniel Ortega, and his power-obsessed wife Rosario Murillo, are running for president and vice president in the upcoming November elections. Unless the opposition unites, quickly, the power hungry Ortegas may pull it off. The road to this point is paved with enough human rights abuses and corruption to keep tribunals and courts busy for years.

The Nicaraguan people seem to be reaching their limit. When Ortegas sacked the opposition party leadership a few months ago in the mostly puppet Congress, it seems to have lit a spark within the opposition as well as within his own Sandinista party.