18 January 2001

Corporate America Offers Information Technology Aid

Washington -- Government and humanitarian officials are sorting through the rubble and devastation caused by an earthquake in El Salvador January 13. Measured at 7.6, the quake killed at least 687 people.

A representative of corporate giant IBM -- International Business Machines - is also involved in the Salvadoran humanitarian effort "to provide direct support to victims." Brent H. Woodworth is with IBM's Crisis Response Team, and has joined disaster relief teams on the scene of hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes all over the world.

Woodworth explained how his company will help the Salvadoran government through this crisis when he appeared January 17 at a Washington briefing on the information technology (IT) industry's contribution to developing world aid efforts.

In El Salvador, Woodworth said IBM's representative will be using the company's expertise in information management and technologies to help officials inventory, locate and distribute critical commodities -- water, food and medical equipment and other supplies.

Woodworth said IBM's involvement in humanitarian disasters evolved from the recognition that a contribution of money alone in a time of natural disaster would not necessarily provide direct aid to the victims themselves. Poor management, bureaucratic impediments or corruption might diminish the potential benefit of purely cash contributions. Woodworth says IBM now brings its corporate talents to bear on disaster relief through its Crisis Response Team. The company has learned that its core competency -- managing information -- can be an enormous assistance to beleaguered local officials who are trying to cope with the shock of a disaster and an influx of supplies and aid that may or may not fulfill immediate needs.

"Information can be just as important as food or water in a disaster," Woodworth said as he described how his team helped officials develop a database for donated medical supplies after the 1999 earthquake in Turkey. Woodworth said the team designed a Turkish-based language system that can be operated without medical expertise, enabling organization and categorization of the supplies. The system, he said, has now become a permanent fixture in the nation's disaster preparedness plan.

Drawing on his experiences in natural disasters and civil unrest, Woodworth said the IT industry can help create information systems that would allow better coordination among governments, nongovernmental organizations, and international aid agencies in the face of crisis.

Aidmatrix is a nonprofit foundation underwritten by the i2 Technologies software company that aspires to provide similar information products to help people in crisis. The organization was founded only in October, 2000. Speaking at the same Washington briefing, Executive Director Kristy Dooley said Aidmatrix wants to work toward "making sure that people in need get what they need when they need it."

She said Aidmatrix has provided information management products to U.S organizations working in hunger programs, allowing better coordination of resources between the groups that collect food donations and the soup kitchens and shelters that actually provide meals to the poor and homeless.

Microsoft has also joined the international humanitarian aid effort, and played a particularly significant role in the aftermath of the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. Melissa Pailthorpe, the disaster relief program manager for Microsoft, described the Seattle-based company's work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to reunite families after 750,000 people fled the Yugoslav province in fear of violence. Pailthorpe said Microsoft provided software and corporate expertise to allow aid officials to cope with the problems of the displaced population.

Supporting the international mission of the U.S. Peace Corps is the "signature program" for the AOL-Time Warner Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the world's biggest media company, according to B. Keith Fulton, executive director of corporate relations for the foundation. The program is called Peace Packs and Fulton said the objective will be to provide computers, software and other IT equipment to Peace Corps missions at the local level.

"Community ownership is built into the program," Fulton told the Washington briefing, explaining that the equipment provided by the AOL-Time Warner Foundation could offer many agricultural communities the first access they've ever had to databases providing valuable information on weather, markets, and commodities prices.

The AOL-Time Warner Foundation is also involved in philanthropic programs aimed at improving access to the Internet to bridge the so-called digital divide. Fulton said the "Power-Up" program has installed 250 community technology sites in underserved areas in the United States. The program is also slated for expansion on an international scale, with sites targeted in Germany and Argentina, and as-yet-undetermined countries in Africa and Asia, Fulton said.

Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.
Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov