CADS Global Network: Information Management in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (IMCHE) Project

May PEACE Prevail in Sierra Leone!
May PEACE Prevail on Earth!

CADS GLOBAL NETWORK: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN COMPLEX HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES (IMCHE) PROJECT

Knowledge Is Power - Information Is How you Get It!

CADS Information Management in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (IMCHE) project focuses on taking responsibility acting cooperatively and learning continually. Building sustainable communities requires having the patience to engage people in sharing their visions of the future, deciding upon a common vision and developing the resources to act on that vision.

The project therefore seeks to link with umbrella groups representing NGOs and CBOs in Sierra Leone to creating a web site around which improved internal coordination of information and activities can occur; and establishing a resource center for member organizations of these linked umbrella groups is fundamental to arriving at a common vision for action teams, i.e. NGOs and CBOs, to facilitate discussions of issues like:

What is important to our community?
These are our values.

What are our criteria for development decisions?
These are our principles.

What do we want to be?
This is our common vision.

How will we gather and share information and resources to help citizens make informed and thoughtful choices about the future?
This is our process.

There is enough demand to warrant the establishment of another NGO network to harness resources towards Sierra Leone's development. As change is constant and the pace of change is accelerating, community learning therefore, must be constant in order to anticipate and manage change. Most people learn best by doing, but the ability to "do" takes practice. Action teams will serve as the arena where citizens learn how to gather and share information, learn from one another, and discuss public-policy issues and how these issues affect their community.

Ideally, this will change the way the rest of the community gathers and shares information and will strengthen the role of community learning in the long-term development process.

Besides, not all development decisions that confront local communities are local in scope. For instance, some decisions affect entire watersheds, regardless of their political jurisdictions. Issues like air quality, water quality, deforestation and health do not recognize political boundaries.

Local economies are affected by regional and global policies and events. Sustainable communities cannot afford to be isolated. Each community's actions affect other communities. What appears sustainable for one community might be at the expense of another and, therefore, not truly sustainable. Cooperation among communities is therefore necessary to build a sustainable society.

NGOs and CBOs around Sierra Leone (and world) that function as sustainable development action teams thus need to find more adequate ways to reach out, network and learn from each other. Such a work is Herculean, and the center will not be re-inventing the wheel and duplicating or replacing activities already pursued in Sierra Leone.

The thrust of the center's Global Network project thus focus is on linking interlocking networks of NGOs/CBOs and individuals regarding issues focussed on Sierra Leone's development. The network will seek to contribute to the transformation of Sierra Leone into one global partnership between local NGOs in Sierra Leone and international NGOs and humanity and communities development.

To do so we provide innovative forms for networking discussion and exchange of information, education, communication and empowerment, strategies that promote sustainable development issues and trade information. We describe this project as "Information management in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies" because we focus our programming on connecting the local needs of Sierra Leonean communities with the international community. Building sustainable communities requires having the patience to engage people in sharing their visions of the future, deciding upon a common vision and developing the resources to act on that vision.

Objectives of the IMCHE Project:

1) To link with umbrella groups representing NGOs and CBOs in Sierra Leone to create a web site around which improved internal coordination of information and activities can occur.

2) To establish a resource center for member organizations of these linked umbrella groups.

3) To conduct seminars, symposia, workshops and management training that will ensure efficient and better output from the NGO sector.

4) To conduct world wide web researches, and to supply pertinent trade and market information to members and other interested parties.

Project Requirements:

Five (5) Computers (486's and Pentiums Microprocessor PC's with windows 95, or 98 installed and internet connectivity i.e. with RAM at least 32MB and Standard size monitors preferable -- SupreVGA and VGA's).

Five (5) Uninterrupted Power Systems (UPS) hardware units.

One (1) small Generator with capability to provide power to 5 computer units during power outages.

All these equipment we are kindly asking to be donated to CADS in kind shipped to us at:

CADS Sierra Leone
61 Sackville Street
PMB 1290
Freetown, Sierra Leone
West Africa
Tel: (232 22) 224839 / 225051
Email: CadsIntlPrograms@aol.com

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In sponsoring the Sierra Leone Digest, the Center for Alternative Development Strategies (CADS) Sierra Leone aims to meet the need for a journal of significant thought and opinion on social, political, economic, cultural and development issues in Sierra Leone.

The digest of difference views represent the opinions of the contributing authors and does not neccesarily reflect the center's
viewpoint or position.

The sponsorship of the Sierra Leone Digest by the Center is in line with its journalistic program to research and propound issues of developmental value to the Government and people of Sierra Leone, and foster interdependence and international cooperation, protect human rights and promote Sierra Leonean cultural interest and creative achievement in the world.

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Balancing the Budget or Unbalancing Human Lives: Structural Adjustment in Africa - An Analysis
An article on IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs in Africa. It gives a theoretical and historical background to stuctural adjustment in Africa -- Joe A.D. Alie, Phd. Department of History, Fourah Bay College (USL) was commissioned by CADS Sierra Leone to write this article for the Sierra Leone Digest: Published, August 1994.

An Interview With Dr. James Jonah -- Chairman, Interim National Electoral Commission (INEC)
As the date scheduled by the NPRC regime to return Sierra Leone to democratic civilian rule draws closer, increased attention is being focused on INEC, the body on which so much depends to transform this objective to reality. Read what the head of INEC then, Dr. James Jonah, told the Sierra Leone Digest -- August 1994.

To Know More About Our Programs, Send Us an Email at: CadsIntlPrograms@aol.com or Call Our CADS Global Network -- USA Office at:
1-720-351-5520 or Our CADS Sierra Leone Headquarters at (232 22) 224839.