World Dialogue on Regulation

A partner with LIRNEasia and Sarvodaya in Evaluating Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination (HazInfo) project, Dr Gordon Gow from the University of Alberta, Canada made a public lecture titled Responsive Innovation for Disaster Mitigation in Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 20, 2006. The lecture falls within the WDR research and discussion topic ICTs and Disaster Warning.

Dr Gow framed his presentation around two questions:

1. What role can communications policy and regulation play in contributing to a systematic framework of risk reduction?
2. What additional development benefits might such a framework also realistically seek to achieve?

In answering the first question, Dr Gow presented a number of definitions and concepts but in the end no systematic framework was developed. Although he endorsed the need for policy and regulation that allows information to flow across different networks and supports end-user training he fell short of anchoring these desirable outcomes within a coherent framework.

The “integrative thinking” to risk reduction that Dr Gow alluded to in his presentation, states that disasters are an outcome of changes in the physical world that interact with existing social conditions. The presenter left this concept at a high level of abstraction without elaborating how this integrative thinking could be relevant to policymakers for developing a risk reduction strategy. For example, an integrative approach to disaster mitigation is critical when coordination is required between regional and global warning systems, national warning authority, disaster management center, private telecom operators, telecom regulatory authority etc. that are involved in various stages of the risk management cycle of detection, warning, response and mitigation. A national hazard response plan must not only address when and how warnings are issued nationally but would need to develop protocols that allow national warning systems to be interoperable between different communication networks and global warning systems. Communication policy and regulation that are harmonized with the objectives of a national hazard response plan would make it more likely that in an eventuality of a hazard, the different arms of the government and communication service providers can work in consort. However, these issues were not dealt with in any substantive manner by the presenter.

In addressing the second question, Dr Gow drew on the experience from the HazInfo project to emphasize the need for ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) to be selected for the last-mile of a hazard warning system that in addition to providing a warning function also enhance the everyday lives of local communities through improved access to information and related services. In his view, developing countries like Sri Lanka, in the process of deploying their last-mile early warning system should also be meeting broader development objectives of providing access to information services.

The presentation can be downloaded from the LIRNEasia website [PDF].