UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS RELAUNCHES RELIEF WEB SITE

Press Release
IHA/695

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS RELAUNCHES RELIEF WEB SITE

Site Offers New Features to Facilitate Finding Information on Emergencies

GENEVA/NEW YORK, 21 January (OCHA) -- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has relaunched ReliefWeb, the world's foremost humanitarian web site, with new features which make it easier than ever to pinpoint the latest information on emergencies and disasters around the world. ReliefWeb is located at www.reliefweb.int.

“Minutes after disaster strikes or a war breaks out, ReliefWeb begins to post information”, said Alta Haggarty, ReliefWeb's coordinator in New York. “What's also special about the new site is that it is so easy to use.”

ReliefWeb is no longer only for those with Web access. A new feature, ReliefWeb via e-mail, can send text versions of documents posted on the site to e-mail addresses on demand.

“Our challenge is to reach the field, where the Web is not so easily available”, Ms. Haggarty said. “Now, even the most remote user with a simple modem and phone link can get the latest information available on an emergency.”

In addition to its crisp new graphic look, the site has been restructured to incorporate new technology and architecture, allowing policy makers, relief workers and journalists to navigate more efficiently, share information better, and link more quickly to its 40,000 documents. ReliefWeb’s advanced search function has also been redesigned and now searches by country, disaster type or source.

“The older version organized information by emergency or disaster, like the Turkey Earthquake. The new one allows you to see the information by country. This is often more logical for the user”, Ms. Haggarty said. “It also incorporates a number of new links so you can view other related information about the country or the specific emergency. You can even click on the source name and access other documents posted by that source.”

ReliefWeb is managed by teams in New York and Geneva who monitor, select and post humanitarian information 18 hours a day, every half-hour, from over

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300 sources, including the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic and research institutions, and the media. An office is being set up in Asia to cover the world on a 24-hour basis.

For more information on the ReliefWeb project, see About ReliefWeb at www.reliefweb.int/help/about.html.

For more information, contact:

Alta Haggarty, ReliefWeb New York Phone: (212) 963-9145 e-mail: haggarty@un.org

Craig Duncan, ReliefWeb Geneva Phone: (41 22) 917-2232 e-mail: cd@reliefweb.int

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