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CROWD-SOURCED GOVERNANCE IN A POST-DISASTER CONTEXT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2014

Shahla F Ali*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Program in Arbitration and Dispute Resolution, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong, Sali@hku.hk.

Abstract

In the wake of recent catastrophic natural disasters, the United Nations (UN) has developed an increasingly sophisticated network of collaborative partnerships to assist with humanitarian relief operations. The growing use of open-source technology such as crowd mapping and resource tracking—being universally accessible, collaboratively designed, subject to ongoing improvement, and responsive to on-the-ground needs—reflects in many respects the emerging UN governance mechanisms developed to support the creation of such technology. The 2008 meeting of the World Economic Forum called for increased documentation and ‘dissemination of the work of humanitarian relief’ and ‘mapping of assets, non-food items’ and resources to prevent duplication.1 However, as yet, little attention has been given to the role of open-source governance mechanisms in the context of disaster response. This article aims to fill this gap by examining the emerging mechanisms by which private sector collaboration is coordinated by international institutions such as the UN. It finds that the emergence of post-disaster open-source humanitarian relief reflects the observations of new governance legal scholars that coordination is increasingly the result of expanded participation and partnership on the part of governments and non-State actors, a learning-focused orientation, with the State increasingly acting as a convener, catalyst and coordinator.

Type
Shorter Articles
Copyright
Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2014 

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References

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128 ibid 44.

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131 Stauffacher (n 107) (emphases added).

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133 Harvard University, Humanitarian Health Conference 2007: Final Report 18 <http://hhi.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/publications/hhc_2007_final_report.pdf> (emphases added).

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135 ibid 19.

136 ibid 19–20.

137 ibid.

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139 Alexander (n 82).

140 Ibid 740–1; see also Ali (n 83).

141 OCHA (n 6) 16–17.

142 Ibid.

143 World Economic Forum (n 1) 1.

144 Ibid.

145 ibid.