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Information Technology and Crisis Management Conference 2005Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 11-14 December 2005 "Launching the Safety Information Reporting Service (SIRS)" was the fourth in a series of conferences designed to explore how the application of new information and communications technology (ICT) can best support international crisis response efforts. Co-organised by the Crisis Management Initiative and the United States Institute of Peace, the conference was held outside Nice, France on 11-14 December 2005. As in previous events, private-sector ICT experts were invited to participate with representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), international organisations, European Union, UN agencies, donor agencies and interested governments. Participating organisations included Oxfam, ICVA, Christian Aid, International Rescue Committee, Première Urgence, Mercy Corps, Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO), HPCR International, UNDSS, UNHCR, OHCHR, European Commission, OSCE, USAID, Unisys, Ericsson, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Oracle, Teliasonera, Instasec, International SOS and many others. In this years event, special attention was paid to invite security management experts from these organisations and also all participants from SIRS stakeholder workshop, which was organised on 13 November in Brussels. The stakeholder meeting that was organised one month before the 4th ITCM-conference gathered key stakeholders from 17 international NGOs, donor organisations and international organisations. The workshop focused on key planning and development issues of the SIRS concept. The concept received positive feedback. SIRS was seen as feasible solution to answer the need to have safety information coordination mechanisms in the field. The participating organisations also supported the idea to use the 4th annual ITCM-conference as a larger stakeholder event, where all aspects and the feasibility of the SIRS concept would be discussed in detail and where the formal launch of service development could be initiated. Based on this recommendation CMI and USIP formulated the agenda for the 4th ITCM-conference around different aspects of SIRS. Conference objectives included the identification of structural options for designing the service; key planning and development issues and concrete steps toward first pilot deployment. All 44 conference participants gave their support for the formal launch of the service. Based on this recommendation, CMI and USIP started to work on an action plan for this year that entails three parallel efforts: building an organizational structure with advisory board for SIRS that can be temporarily hosted by a nonoperational NGO, most likely CMI, itself; finding funding for SIRS; developing the technology to support SIRS. All these activities lead to the fourth effort; piloting SIRS in two locales. For more information, please contact: Mr. Rob Watson
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