NetHope Supports Bangladesh Relief Response

James Horton, NetHope representative from Oxfam, travelled to Dhaka, Bangladesh earlier this month to support Network Relief BGAN kit deployment and field staff training. NetHope received donations from Cisco Systems, Inc. the Cisco Foundation, Global Baker & McKenzie Charitable Foundation, and Google.org Fund of Tides Foundation, to assist emergency response in the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh. Horton consulted with members from Save the Children, Oxfam, Plan International, World Vision (WVI) and ActionAid Bangladesh and was able to provide a full assessment of: IT disaster preparedness in the country; the potential for a NetHope chapter; and further near term actions NetHope can take in the region.

A visit to the UNICEF office in Barisal found that communications and NGO support are prioritized in the region.  A BGAN for use by the UNICEF office staff was installed in the early days of the response and GSM mobiles were common. In addition to this, the UN-standard vehicle-fit of HF and VHF radio was in evidence, with a strong VHF network available in the area surrounding Barisal.  The UN is generally very well equipped and is supported by reliable agencies.

Dhaka Member Meeting
As a result of the cyclone, the issue of disaster preparedness in the field of communications was a hot topic amongst the NetHope IT managers.  A two-day outage following the cyclone left local NGO members with little confidence in Bangladesh’s national power grid, and there is the very real possibility of further natural disasters in the near future.  The imminenet fear of an earthquake damaging the terrestrial assets of GSM and power networks lingers. Such disaster would have a significant impact in Dhaka which is why future planning should consider potential  sharing of ICT services alternatives including an in-region stockpile of NRK, BGAN, and SAT phone kits to enable rapid recovery of communications.
Attending NGOs also stressed the need for some form of permanent satellite communications installation in two regions of the country. The first of these is the northern border region around Jamalpur and Jaria. World Vision reported that there was little or no GSM coverage here, and that it may be useful to consider the installation of a VSAT in a central location. The same situation was reported for the Chittagong Hill Tracts area in the south east of the country.

Next Steps
NetHope is working to fund ICT-based development initiatives to promote and accelerate growth in the more remote areas of Bangladesh and further develop disaster response capabilities. A NetHope Chapter for members operating in the region is being planned for February 2008. As part of Chapter development, additional training on the BGAN equipment will be provided and the equipment, currently utilized by ActionAid, will be stockpiled locally for use in future disaster response. NetHope plans to continue fostering collaboration, connectivity and capacity building in the affected region and develop lessons learned to positively impact future operations overall.