The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the south of Haiti on January 12th 2010 triggered the largest humanitarian response since the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. But the earthquake was unfortunately not the only serious emergency to strike Haiti in 2010. The outbreak of cholera in the town of St Marc on October 18th 2010 brought a new, highly infectious and deadly disease to a country with weak sanitation and health systems, and no knowledge of this illness.

Throughout these responses, a number of organisations tried to operationalise ways to fill a long-acknowledged gap in humanitarian response: the way in which aid agencies share information with and listen to those affected by the disaster.  

In February 2011, an infoasaid team began two months of detailed field research in Haiti in an effort to discover which of these efforts had borne fruit, map and capture Haitian led initiatives, look at how theoretical models had delivered in practice and most importantly of all, look at the viewpoint and user experience of those affected by these disasters when it comes to communication.    

The findings were striking. Firstly, although the evidence is anecdotal, the demand for information from survivors of the earthquake and the cholera outbreak was high, with Haitians desperate for knowledge and information especially practical updates on finding loved ones, sourcing assistance. Those affected by disasters also stressed again and again the importance of communications as a process, not just the transfer of information.

On the international side, good communications work was clearly viable and important from the earliest stages of the response – as demonstrated in work by Internews, and agencies such as WFP, and found to be an important investment. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the agencies and organisations that delivered most effectively on communications were those that invested in dedicated technical capacity and in funding for basic communications tools. This is linked to another finding, that agencies who had invested in communication discovered a close link between good communications work and improved operational delivery.

There is no question that technology is revolutionising the communications sector. This is a field in its infancy, and in Haiti it is clear that innovation was being driven primarily by local populations, not international experts. Aid agencies need to learn to be guided by local expertise in this area.

Finally, the single biggest gap across the board within agencies was the lack of Monitoring and Evaluation of communications projects. This did not only make passing judgement very difficult, it was also clearly hindering the development of the sector and the capture of best practice to inform future responses or to encourage further investment by agencies especially at headquarters level.

There is no question that the experiences in Haiti in 2010 were vast and in many ways unusual and even unique. While there is much to learn, replicate and build on from the practical case studies contained in this report, technological advances mean that in communications possibly more than any other sector, it is essential to look forward and plan for the disaster of the future, not those of the past.

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