HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS OFFICE LAUNCHES FRENCH WEB SITE INFORMATION NETWORK IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, CENTRAL ASIA

HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS OFFICE LAUNCHES FRENCH WEB SITE INFORMATION NETWORK

IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, CENTRAL ASIA

GENEVA, 5 July (OCHA) -– The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched today the French web site of the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN).  This new service is aimed at providing the francophone community with a dynamic and flexible system for receiving humanitarian news on sub-Saharan Africa.  

“This is a very significant and timely development,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kenzo Oshima said.  “It is important for a United Nations service such as IRIN to make a concerted effort to keep French-speaking communities and humanitarian workers adequately informed.”

The new site -- www.irinnews.org/frenchfp.asp -- provides easy access to IRIN's web-based services and offers an electronic mail subscription service in French that can be tailored closely to users' needs.

Part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, IRIN was established six years ago in Nairobi, Kenya to promote better flows of information in the Great Lakes region.  By providing accurate and impartial information on events as they unfold, IRIN helps aid workers and donor governments to respond more effectively to crises.  

IRIN publishes a wide variety of reports on events and themes every day in English, French and Swahili on 46 different countries in sub-Saharan Africa and eight in Central Asia.  Information products include analytical reports, interviews, daily summaries of events, weekly digests and in-depth features on issues of concern.

Although IRIN is a key source of information in donor capitals, more than half of the 90,000 subscribers who receive its reports by electronic mail, live in developing countries. 

IRIN has three offices in sub-Saharan Africa and one in Central Asia. Although it is free to subscribers, it does not receive funds from the UN's core budget, and is wholly dependant on the generosity of donor governments to survive.

IRIN is currently providing a scaled back French service for the Great Lakes region and West Africa.  Further development of the French service, including more original reporting, will depend on the receipt of additional funding from interested countries and organizations.

For further information, please contact:  Ken Blackman, IRIN Editor in Chief, Abidjian, tel: + 225 22 44 40, +225 07 83 02 42; e-mail:  ken@irinnews.org.  Corinne Archer, IRIN Nairobi, tel: + 254 2 622147; Joanne Clarke, IRIN/Genève, tel: + 41 22 321 84 25, e-mail: joanne@irinnews.org

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