Webinar :Using current and emerging cyber tools for disaster management in Africa

Experts discuss the role of cyber tools in disaster management at a webinar

The webinar, moderated by Dr. Katherine Getao, delved into the sophisticated use of cyber tools for disaster management, with a panel of experts including Mwende Njiraini, Angela Oduor Lungati from Ushahidi, Kelvin Njenga of Kenya Red Cross, Alphonso Wilson, and humanitarian lawyer Grace Mutung’u.

Mwende Njiraini opened the discussion by drawing an allegorical parallel between the biblical story of Noah and modern disaster management, setting the stage for a dialogue that intertwined historical context with contemporary technological advancements in the field.

A central theme was the crucial role of community involvement in disaster response. The panel agreed that communities are often the first responders and should be equipped with the necessary tools and training. Kelvin Njenga highlighted the Kenya Red Cross’s use of community-based surveillance to preempt and manage health emergencies, such as cholera and COVID-19.

The ethical considerations of data collection during disasters were examined, with Grace Mutung’u emphasizing the need for higher ethical standards due to the challenges in obtaining consent and the power imbalance between data collectors and affected individuals. She advocated for data minimization and the potential benefits of collecting additional data for future disaster preparedness.

Angela Oduor Lungati discussed Ushahidi’s platform for crowdsourcing data from individuals affected by disasters, which informs response efforts. She pointed out the challenges in extracting timely insights from vast data collections and the need for better data-sharing frameworks and contextualization of tools for local stakeholders.

Kelvin Njenga discussed the Kenya Red Cross’s use of technology, including communication platforms, mapping tools, and drones, and the development of predictive platforms with partners like Microsoft and Safaricom to anticipate population movements during disasters for better resource allocation and response.

Alphonso Wilson brought a West African perspective, highlighting the role of technology in translating the Bible into local languages for better understanding during disasters. He stressed the need for improved data management systems in Liberia, operational support, and the establishment of emergency response teams, especially in rural areas.

Dr. Michelle Wangui shared her wish list, which included better prediction of risks and their impacts for advanced preparation and response, and effective communication with communities to inspire health-promoting behaviour changes.

The issue of climate change was acknowledged as a pressing concern, with Angela Oduor Lungati calling for more contextualization and understanding of climate change at the local level to drive collective action. Alphonso Wilson echoed this sentiment, urging African leaders to take responsibility for addressing climate change and its impacts.

Collaboration and knowledge sharing were identified as essential for improving disaster management practices globally. The panellists expressed a desire for increased African participation in future webinars and a commitment to addressing unanswered questions post-event.

In conclusion, the webinar illuminated the multifaceted approach required in disaster management, encompassing technology, community engagement, ethical data practices, policy development, and a concerted effort to tackle climate change. The session ended with a call for participants to suggest topics or offer to be panellists for future webinars, emphasizing the need for African participation and perspectives in these discussions.

Mwende Njiraini:
Hi, hello, how are you everybody? Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon from where you’re logging in from. I want to take this opportunity to encourage you to. You are invited to this webinar and we’re excited to host you this evening in Nairobi. The weather is fine. It has been cold over the last few days, but we are good. So, this webinar will focus on the use of current and emerging cyber tools for disaster management. And what I would like to start with is a story. And the story is the one that you know of, for example, it’s in the Bible, and the story is of Noah and the flood. So, Noah, it’s in Genesis 8. And I thought it was an interesting story to talk about when you have natural and man-made disasters. So, this was, I believe, the first natural and man-made disaster that has been recorded. And so, to prepare for the flood, Noah built an ark to escape the flood. And it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. And then Noah, after 40 days, opened a window that he had made in the ark and sent out a raven to fly back and forth until the water was dried up on the earth. So, in Genesis 8.8, he sent a dove to see if the waters had receded from the ground, but the dove could not find anywhere to perch because the water was still over the surface of the earth. And so, it returned to Noah on the ark. and he reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. In verse 10, he waited seven more days. And again, he sent out the dove from the ark. And this time the dove returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. So you can take the subject of the story of Noah and the ark and say, this is where we are coming from. Now we have emerging tools, which are very technical. We’re using AI, we’re using IOT to check the weather patterns and even volcanic eruptions and see the carbon dioxide levels in the vicinity. So it’s important to say that we have come from a long way. We’ve come from doves to technology. So this afternoon, I’d like to invite our speakers to take us through this session and we’ll hand over to our moderator, Dr. Kate Getao. Dr. Getao, you have the floor. Thank you.

Katherine Getao:
Okay, thank you very much, Mwende and for that well-known story. I had not thought of it in that way. Before maybe I introduce myself, I can see that the head of Diplo, Jovan Kubalija is with us. So Jovan, would you just like to greet us for a minute before we proceed with our seminar?

Jovan Kurbalija:
Definitely, Kate, it’s a pleasure to meet you and to see your new hairstyle, which congratulations, it suits you nice. to see all good friends and colleagues here. When you came, Kate, with the idea to organize it, I thought it was an excellent topic because disaster recovery is one of the few areas where there is positive image and positive perception of digital technology and AI. As you know, there are more and more criticism about different misuses of artificial intelligence, social media. But in this field, we have positive uses and probably in two key areas. One is the anticipation forecast of the potential problems. I would say more natural, but also some social disasters. Second is you use it in the crisis management, for example, for search and rescue, where social media has been proven many times as essential tool to find the lost people, to reunite families, and to do a lot. Therefore, we are speaking about one area where technology is, was, is, and will be relevant. That’s just a short message. I wish you very successful deliberation. As always, you are in the good hands of Kate and Mwende It’s an excellent composition of our panel, a great group of people from African continent and with a lot of direct experience. What we would like to do following your discussion is to share the findings and points with the rest of the world because that’s unfortunately the area where we face the similar or the same problems wherever you are. In Latin America, Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and that’s the principles are more or less the same, how to deal with disaster recovery by using digital technology. There were best wishes. Good luck with discussion and we are looking for the new insights, new ideas and with that I would like to pass the floor back to Kate.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you so much, Jovan, for your insights and I hope you’ll stay with us because we have a wonderful panel with us. So my name is Katherine Getao. As I said, I’m a regional advisor for Diplo and a retired public servant from Kenya. So without much further ado, because I know you really want to hear from the panelists, we have five very distinguished panelists with experience in this area. I’m going to ask them to first do a round in the order of Kelvin, followed by Angela, followed by Alphonso, followed by Grace and last but not least, Michelle. Just to introduce yourself, tell people who you are and what interests you have in the area of disaster management. So thank you very much. So we’ll start with you, Kelvin.

Kelvin Njenga:
Okay, thank you very much. My name is Kelvin Njenga from Kenya Red Cross. I’m the ICT officer in charge of digital innovation. I’m part of a very large and dedicated team at the Kenya Red Cross that is tasked with identifying ways that we can leverage technology to enhance operational efficiency that is in the humanitarian business for Kenya Red Cross society. I’m particularly interested in disaster management because in the recent days, in the recent years, we have We have had a number of disasters in Kenya Red Cross that we have, we as Kenya Red Cross of course are mandated to respond, and we have seen great use of technology within the Kenya Red Cross and also through our partners and also our Red Cross Red Crescent movement partners. There has been a lot of increasing the use of technology within the movement. We work a lot with the communities, our volunteers are part of the communities where we work in. Previously there was the uptick of technology even within the communities that we work in was not very good but right now there is also an uptick and an acceptance of technology in that sense. Technology has helped us reach a lot of people within a shorter time more efficiently. We are able to track our resources, we are able to monitor our resources, preposition ourselves in good time so that we are able to provide the best care for communities before and also during these disasters. For us, time is actually life so we try as much as possible to be as efficient as possible to ensure that at least we are able to save these lives. So, during the webinar, I’ll be talking about some of the key technologies that we have been utilizing at Kenya Red Cross. They range from communications, some communications platforms that we have. We have some mapping tools that have been of great use and also some drones that have been of great use especially during the recent floods in Kenya. We have the use of AI. That is the current use of AI and also some tools that we hope will be ready for use in the near future. So I’ll be interested in those particular areas. And of course, I’ll be happy to interact with the rest of the panelists and as well as everyone who has joined today. Thank you very much.

Katherine Getao:
Okay, thank you so much for that. And certainly the Red Cross has a wonderful reputation here in Kenya for the response from everything from a terrorist attack to the floods to civil unrest. We’ve really seen your role. Thank you, Calvin. So I’ll move to Angela who I from Ushahui who I know has very interesting applications of technology. So go ahead, Angela.

Angela Oduor Lungati:
Thank you, Katherine, and thank you to the Diplo Foundation for the invitation to participate today. As you’ve been told, my name is Angela Oduor-Lungati. I’m the executive director of Ushahidi. I like to think of myself as an open source software enthusiast, but someone who’s also really passionate about building and using appropriate technology to impact the lives of disenfranchised communities around the world. For some background, Ushahidi is a global nonprofit technology organization that empowers people through citizen generated data to develop solutions that strengthen their communities. I think people probably know of Ushahidi because of its origins from Kenya, but also due to its use in practically almost every disaster in the last 16 years. We’ve really focused on building an open source platform that enables large scale data collection from people who are directly affected by different crises with the overarching goal of helping people everywhere to surface or to raise their voice and also generate insights that will help them tackle issues that matter the most to them. 16 years, this open source platform that was born out of this Kenyan context has been used in more than 160 countries, more than 200,000 times. It’s been translated into more than 40, maybe even 45 different languages, and has been used primarily as a means of engaging with people directly affected by humanitarian and during humanitarian and disaster relief efforts. So that could be earthquakes, floods, fires, most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s also been used for human rights protection work to document violations such as sexual harassment or police brutality. It’s also been used to highlight collective intelligence for climate action. So I’m really looking forward to jumping into the conversation and sharing a little bit around our perspective as an organization that’s been providing the technology that supports disaster and crisis management and some of the benefits or the good things and also the challenges that we face in the world today. So thank you very much.

Katherine Getao:
Hey, thank you, Angela. Certainly a very impressive profile for Bushahidi and we’re looking forward to hearing more. So I’ll turn to Alphonse. Alphonso is from Liberia. He works for the cyber agency in Liberia and maybe Alphonse, very welcome. Of course, most of the participants are Kenyan. So we’re really, really happy to have you and to hear more of your introduction, what you do and any ways in which you’ve been involved in disaster response. Thank you, Alphonso.

Alphonso Wilson:
Once again, let me say good afternoon from Liberia and on behalf of the people of Liberia, the government of Liberia, I would like to say what a privilege to afford one of these songs to be part of such a great discussion. My name is Aphonso Wilson, I work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Assistant Administrator of the Australian Cyber Security Express. The use of technology has helped us to decentralize and to also communicate to our people in a rural area. And some of the tools we’re able to use, like there’s those software that those people who cannot read and write, we’re able to use software to at least translate the Bible into our local languages and help them understand the Bible in a more meaningful way. Like before, before the use of technology, it was very difficult for our people to understand the Bible because most of whom that we communicated with could not understand the English that we speak. But with the use of technology now, we can communicate with anyone, any part of our country like Liberia, and even Europe and other nations. Now the Bible has been assimilated into our 16 different languages, which some of you might not understand, like the Kwele, the Dibah, and so on, we translate the Bible into the local languages to help us understand and communicate with our people. And looking at technology in a more holistic way, it also helps us, at least with the speed of what information, if you realize a recent incident that happened in Kenya, without the use of technology, I wouldn’t have known. Like the earthquake that just happened in Kenya, I wouldn’t have known what it was. Without technology, technology has helped me in so many ways. And one of the key factors which have to do with the disasters, which we should be taking very key note on, is the disaster recovery. How do we even prevent, if we don’t recover from such disasters? Like a recent or another disaster that keep occurring, those are things that can be alighted. Like for example, there are some words, there are some technologies that can help us, notify us, the earthquake. I think those technologies should be more enhanced and put more attention on before disasters occur. Thank you.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you very much, Alphonse. And that point about people not being literate, but now we have tools like YouTube videos and so on in multiple languages. I think that’s an important contribution to this discussion. Now I’ll move to Grace, who is a humanitarian lawyer. And Grace, you are very welcome. And I’d love to hear your perspective, introduce yourself more and what you do, and your perspective on the use of technology in disaster response. Please go ahead, Grace.

Grace Mutung’u:
Thank you so much, Dr. Getao. As has been said, my name is Grace Mutung’u, one and the same person. I work mostly with civil society organizations as a policy researcher and policy advocate. And a lot of times my involvement in humanitarian work has been from this perspective of policy research, looking at technology. One of my personal interests as a Kenyan, where… or a person living in Kenya, where there’s a lot of use of technology has always been the repurposing of technology. Sometimes the repurposing is by the state, but it’s also always interesting to see the repurposing of technology by people. So for example, technology that was created for one thing, being used for another thing in very interesting ways. And I think there are so many examples, for example, in the ongoing protests in Kenya, where even social media, the way social media is being used and many other technologies that we’ll probably talk about later. My other interest or experience with technology in disaster has to be from my lived experience in the community where I live. It’s very close to, I live very close to the capital, but it’s also a bit underserved. For people who come from Kenya, I live in the diaspora of Ngata Rungai-Kithirian. There’s a very interesting use of technology there for things like even community policing and community surveillance in disasters such as floods, when we had the floods, and also earlier when we had COVID-19. And although it’s a very micro community and micro use of technology, I always think it’s a very interesting example. And even going to Mwende’s example about preparing for disaster, as NOAA did, maybe we think about it as responding to disaster and other people further in the Bible. are recorded to have done, so it is not as if people create the technology or start using the technology, but when disaster strikes, they make use of what is existing and so they are very interesting, for example, WhatsApp groups that have even gone to the extent of traffic management and reporting traffic issues within the community also now evolved to business communities and so on, but it all started from responding to a disaster, which I think we’ll talk about later when we’re talking about examples of tech use and also data management and ethical uses of data, so I’m glad to be here and looking forward to the discussion.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you so much, Grace. I mean, you know, bringing that out that you don’t, sometimes it’s not formal, it’s just people who learn how to innovatively exploit existing technologies to help one another. So thank you for bringing that aspect out. And now I turn to Michelle. Michelle is a medical doctor. She works now at the Ministry of Health as a technical officer involved in making policy, I think, for disaster. So, Michelle, from your past experience, I think you’ve worked in rural or peri-urban hospitals, but you’ve also now worked in the disaster policy area. Just introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit more about the use of, your view on the use of technology in disaster response. Please go ahead, Michelle.

Dr Michelle Wangui:
Okay, thank you very much, Dr. Getao, and thank you to the Diplo Foundation for the invitation to participate in this panel. And hi to all the participants and also to my fellow panelists. So, as I’ve been introduced, my name is Dr. Michelle Wangui, and I work for the Ministry of Health in Kenya. I’m a technical officer working in the Division of Health Emergencies and Disaster Risk Management. So, at the Ministry of Health, the issue of disaster and health emergencies is quite a priority for us since the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it very clear that sometimes diseases and health emergencies can really be very devastating, even to the wider community. They have very serious economic implications. So, proper management of health emergencies and disasters is a priority for us as the Ministry of Health. We also know and we recognize that disasters, they disrupt our health system, and they adversely affect our ability to achieve our goal, which is the highest attainable standard of health for all Kenyans. So, we know that if we manage our disasters and our health emergencies well, then there’s less disruption to our health system, and then we can be able to develop our systems and achieve the highest attainable standard of health. So, I’ve not been in the area of disasters. for a very long time. I actually just joined the division last year, but it has been a great learning experience. And one thing is very clear, disasters happen quite frequently. And I think the frequency is even increasing more and more as the day go by. Since I joined towards the end of last year, we’ve had El Nino rain. We’ve had the Mbakati fire disaster. We’ve had numerous major road traffic accidents. We’ve had the long rains, which were quite devastating. We are now having the protests around the country. So these issues are very much with us and we need to manage them well. In terms of technology, it is very useful. We use it for communication, you know, just the basic things like email, mobile phone calls, SMS messages, WhatsApp. Technology really helps with communication. And then there’s the issue of data management. So all the way from data collection, now we use digital tools to collect data for storage, for analysis, and even for drawing inferences from that data, technology is very helpful. Also in terms of presentation of the data and information and communicating with affected communities and also communities at risk, technology is very useful. And we definitely would like to learn more about it and to leverage on technology more in response to disaster. Thank you.

Katherine Getao:
Okay, thank you very much, Michelle. And thank you for listing out the number of disasters we’ve had and also that technology… has helped even when, you know, you don’t have to always have rocket science, but just the ability to communicate is so important. You’ve also referred to the longer term impacts of these disasters on the economy, on people’s lives, and so on, and how important it is to manage them properly so that we mitigate these long-term negative impacts. Okay, so now that I think three people, Michelle, Angela, and Grace, have all referred to the issue of data, I know that’s not what I said at Duke, but I can’t help wanting to hear more, maybe starting with you, Grace. You raised a concern, and immediately after, Grace, I’ll move to Angela, because, you know, Ushahidi collects data from ordinary citizens. It enables them to share their experience within a disaster, and that data is then interpreted and used to mitigate the effects of that disaster. So, what are some of the questions, as a humanitarian lawyer, Grace, what are some of the questions you’d give us about the use of data in disaster? Response. Please go ahead, Grace.

Grace Mutung’u:
Yeah, very interesting question, but quite relevant. I think the first thing that comes to mind is that there is need to, or the first thing is always the need to acknowledge the issue of the emergency, and that the data is being collected in an emergency situation. Therefore, the purpose for that data is the emergency. So, you know, normally in data protection work, we talk about consent and ask, especially where personal data is concerned and seeking the consent of the person before collecting their data. Other times we like to add the issue of informed consent where we tell people, please inform people before you collect their data and go as far as even informing them why you’re collecting the data. Many times that is not possible to do or to do to the fullest extent during an emergency. So, if you’re a humanitarian actor, acknowledging that you collected the data in an emergency situation, meaning that for example, you did not have the possibility to get consent or even if you got consent, it was not free and informed, it gives you the, or it calls upon you to have, to take greater care and to be even, to even apply a higher standard of ethics when processing that data because you’d use the data to make decisions and some of those decisions can have legal effect. Another connected issue that we may think about when collecting or processing data during emergencies is also to remember that there’s a power imbalance or an information asymmetry. The power imbalance is between you as the person collecting the data to go make a decision using it and the person you’re collecting the data from or the data about. That person is definitely in a more disempowered compared to you who’s the actor. And we can use examples, you know, from Kenya, some of the colleagues who have spoken in the panel. Normally, when they’re responding to disasters, they have additional powers to, if you’re thinking about a pandemic, for example, they have additional powers to do whatever it takes to eliminate the spread of the virus, if we’re thinking about, for example, the case of COVID-19. We never, in policy work, we sometimes forget to talk about, once the disaster is over, what do we do with the data? How do we retire that data? How do we correct issues like, if we got that data without consent, how do we correct that and either get rid of that data or acquire the consent if we still need to use the data? We never really think about those issues. For example, in some of the policy work that we’re doing, we are advising that it’s very important to think about sunsetting the data or having sunset clauses in the laws that establish the mandate to collect data. Those are just some of the thoughts off the top of my head. And I hope they provoke us to think about other things we can do while collecting data in emergency situations.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you very much for those insights, Grace, and I’m sure they’re very provocative to Angela. Tell us a little bit about how SHAHIDI works, maybe giving an example. I think right now, I see in Haiti, in Kenya, and in Haiti, it was one of the places that made Ushahidi famous during the earthquake many years ago. I can’t remember when, but maybe just tell us a little. bit about how it works and then if you want to refer to a few of the data issues that Grace has given us an introduction to, you can do that as well. Go ahead, Angela. Thank you, Katherine.

Angela Oduor Lungati:
The way the platform works, right now there’s two main ways of making use of the platform. You can either download the software and host it on your own servers or you can sign up for what we call deployments or an instance on our cloud-based service. Now typically the people who would be doing that work would be, for example, in this particular case would be humanitarian responders like the Red Cross or any other international organizations. In many cases it might also be local communities. They’ll come in and essentially design surveys or questions, basically the types of data that they’re looking to collect and then configure whether it is SMS, email, Twitter, the mobile applications, the smartphone apps or the web where people on the ground will then be sending in messages. So in a time of crisis it could be, for example, right now let me not use a protest, let me use the Haiti earthquake example. In Haiti people would send text messages about being in a particular community and indicating whether they required blankets or they needed food or they needed essential medicine. That gets pulled into the web management platform and you have the humanitarian responders then organizing it and triaging it. So figuring out if this needs to go to somebody who’s going to the ground, if it needs to be escalated to a different stakeholder to help respond to the particular issue. So that’s typically how it works and to your point as well I think the Haiti earthquake was probably the very first time, aside from the Kenyan election instance, where the idea of not having to rely on people going onto the ground and manually collecting data, helping to increase efficiency in humanitarian response, number one, to helping to eliminate assumptions around what is needed. I think, you know, for many of us during a time of crisis, your immediate thought might be people need food or they need blankets. I think in the case of the Nepal earthquake in 2012, and someone can correct me if that’s not the case, but fairly recently, what they ended up discovering was that there was actually a need for essential medicine rather than, thank you, Heather, 2015, there was a need for essential medicine rather than your typical humanitarian relief. So it’s also just a really good way of pinpointing exactly what is needed on the ground from people’s lived experiences. Now, around your questions on crisis data. So during the COVID-19 pandemic, myself and one of the founders, Juliana Rutich, worked with the GovLab to create some guidelines to think about the types of data that would, you know, things to consider before you decide to deploy or collect data around a crisis, right? So one of the first things that we advocate for that would be really helpful is thinking about what informational gaps exist. I know that in many cases during a time of crisis, it’s okay, we just need data, but could we be a bit intentional about identifying what exactly is the gap? Because that would then inform, you know, what information you require from the public or what information you require from open data portals or what information you require from other partners. And it will also eliminate, you know, trying to reinvent the wheel in many ways that you don’t have to go back and try and collect data if it already exists or collect things that you don’t, you probably don’t need to collect at all. The second thing is how members of the public can help. And the reason why I bring this up is because I think more and more as we live in this information age, it’s become clear that we need to engage with people during times of crisis rather than extract data from them. Right? Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic required collective responsibility, and that meant figuring out how to trigger everyone to jump in and do something about it rather than coming in, asking a question, going back, and then never closing the loop. So it’s always important to consider ways to collaborate with the public effectively, collaborate with the public so that you can effectively respond and figure out what gaps it is that they can fill. Think the third one, and I believe Grace also captured it a little bit, was thinking about the risks that are associated with collecting the type of data that you’re collecting. I know that in previous years, well, the humanitarian and disaster relief space has really matured over time. A lot of time spent reflecting on how, for example, people responded during the Haiti earthquake or Libya or other subsequent ones just to identify guidelines. But more often than not, it felt like, you know, we would go in, we’d collect the data, and then think about the risks afterwards, right? So in a time of crisis, it makes sense for you to collect personal identifying information because you likely need it to reach a particular individual. Is it necessary to keep that personal identifying information a year or two after the crisis has ended? What risk does that expose to the person that you’re collecting? So having some foresight or thinking about some of those risks would help you design ways to mitigate those risks. So for example, if you do decide to collect personal identifying information, then are you going to implement measures to obfuscate it? Do you have, you know, some sort of definition around the lifeline of access to the data and who? who will have access to it, and when is access removed, and things like that. And then most importantly as well, thinking about how to close out the feedback loop, and if I can phrase it differently, how you’re managing expectations for the people who you’re collecting data from to respond to the crisis. Because it’s also important to keep in mind that in many cases, when you’re jumping in as a humanitarian responder, you’re creating an expectation of the general public around a service that will be delivered. So it’s important if you don’t have the capacity to do so, that you’re very clear about what your limitations are. I think I’ll stop there and see if anybody else has anything else they’d like to add.

Katherine Getao:
Oh, Kelvin is asking to jump in, and I was actually coming to you, Kelvin. Angela, that was very enlightening and helpful, and I think we understand better how Ushahidi works, and some of the controls you put in place. So Kelvin, Red Cross is famous. I was going to ask you a question about the Westgate terrorist attack, I believe also in 2015. There were some quite intrusive photographs that were taken, and then, you know, how do you balance with the press, even as you ask or answer the question you intended to chip in? Please go ahead, Kelvin.

Kelvin Njenga:
Okay. Thank you very much. I’ll start by addressing your question. So the Kenya Red Cross, we have an elite team, an elite responders team, we call them the Red Cross Action Team. So it’s an elite team in the sense that they have been trained in a range of response tactics. We have a team that is specialized to responding to Aqua rescues, a team that is specialized to respond to, you know, such incidents such as the Westgate attacks. And we have a very standard way of operation. Our primary objective, of course, is to save life. And, of course, we cannot avoid the responsibility of also uplifting the dignity of the communities that we work with. So while the primary objective is to save life, we usually try as much as possible to work with the resources. I’m sorry, I think someone needs to mute. Yes, please go ahead. It was my fault. Sorry. OK, thank you. So even though our primary objective is to save lives, we also have the responsibility of uplifting the dignity of the people who we are serving at that point in time. So we try our best to work with whoever is available. In a way that they are able to support. So we ask bystanders to come to jump in and support. We, of course, are not able sometimes to completely stop some things from happening. For instance, if there are a lot of bystanders, we try as much as possible to keep them at bay or communicate to them how they can support. But sometimes, Kenyans being Kenyans, people being people, a few photos here and there, some of the photos are taken and posted. But that is something that we completely do not have control over. But we try as much as possible to sensitize the people that we work with in that particular sense. My thoughts were, I agree with actually what the rest of the panelists have said. And I just wanted to jump in to add another angle. There is usually, for us humanitarian organizations, there is a dilemma that is usually there. and the dilemma is the data protection procedures and you know all these ethical considerations dictate that we should only collect data that is necessary at that point in time, so that’s the principle of data minimization. When we collect the data that is necessary, we are able to sufficiently address the problem that this community member has and we would go on our way but there is a lot of value to be achieved both for the humanitarian organization and also for the person receiving aid if we perhaps collect more data regarding this person because this is data that could be used later to determine what kind of emergencies are usually in this area, how many people are in this area, what kinds of needs do these people have. So if we limit ourselves to the minimal data sets, we of course uphold the ethical standards but later when that same area is affected by perhaps a different hazard, we have to come back and request for the same amount of information again from these same communities. So at times that may actually take longer than if we already had enough data about the communities living in that area, response would actually be quicker. So there is usually the dilemma, do we take this data or do we just take what is necessary and leave it at that. The International Red Cross, Red Crescent, the International Federation of Red Cross right now, we are trying to come up with an integrated approach of offering assistance so that this will be implemented in some form of guidance. on in the event that there is that dilemma, what actually are we supposed to do? And ultimately we will create an ecosystem or an ecosystem or a way of putting the needs of this community first and also being able to respond to them on time. So there’s a lot that goes on before response happens, even in this crisis, in times of crisis, when we need to collect data, the tools have to be ready. And by tools, I just don’t mean the devices. We have to know what kind of data do we need to collect. We have to have, in the context of Kenya Red Cross, we have to have volunteers who are trained in using these data collection tools, in understanding the needs of these communities, in how to get there. After the data has come in, for instance, if the aid that is being provided is by cash, we need to ensure that our systems are efficient enough or fast enough to release aid in the shortest time possible. So all of these are things that need to be considered in times of crisis. I’ll give an example of how we use data to anticipate or to avoid being in the situation where we are responding at the time when the aid is needed. There’s this concept of community-based surveillance. Some of us may know, the panelists from Ministry of Health may be aware of the concept of community-based surveillance. So I’ll just want to paint a picture of what happens in the communities. For diseases like cholera, for diseases like rabies, cholera is a disease that affects human beings. And it’s something that either happens on its own, or sometimes it’s as a result of other disasters, like floods, it’s a waterborne disease. So if there’s floods, then the next thing is probably waterborne diseases such as cholera. So we use communities actively to help us detect whether there’s the possibility of an epidemic in these communities. So we have trained a given set of communities in around seven counties to detect or suspect certain diseases based on some community-based community case definitions that they have been trained on. So once they identify, for instance, severe or acute watery diarrhea, they could suspect that this person perhaps has cholera. Or once they see signs of a dog that is rabid, they are able to know that this is probably a rabid dog and we need to do something about it. So we have created a platform that uses USSD. The volunteers, they use the USSD application to report an incident that they have witnessed in the communities. Once that incident has been reported, it triggers an alert to healthcare professionals from the Ministry of Health, that is either people dealing with human health or people dealing with animal health, that is the veterinary in the sub-counties, at the sub-county level. It triggers an alert to them. It tells them that, hey, this person, this volunteer from this community has reported that there is someone with acute watery diarrhea in this location. So. the government systems or the Ministry of Health systems then kick in, we have someone who is sent perhaps to the local community to investigate. Upon verifying that this case is true, then there is also an action, the system allows, there’s a portal that allows them to key in this information and then all of this information is visualized in a dashboard. So those of us who know how waterborne diseases or how rabies spreads, then you may know that having five cases of cholera in one area is actually too much and action needs to be done immediately. So we have a platform that the data is visualized and if there are clusters of related incidents in one village, if they are there then some actions are taken like sensitization, pre-positioning resources, it could be medicine, it could be anything and this of course prevents an outbreak in that particular area. So this is one of the very different ways that data can be used either before or even during some of these diseases. This community-based surveillance concept was particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot talk about it without referencing back to the COVID-19 pandemic because we were actually able to curb a lot of the spread of this disease in many areas because of the community-based reporting. So the communities themselves are able to support themselves to report these kinds of diseases. That is actually one of the greatest uses of data that we have seen and thank you very much. I hand it all back to you.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you very much for that, Kelvin. Actually, there’s somebody who was asking a question about disaster preparedness in the chat and please feel free to, I really thank those of you who are putting your information and comments and questions in the chat and when there is monitoring. So by the end, we’ll be able to at least field a few of your questions. So please go on providing information in chat. Thank you, Kelvin. You already answered a little bit about disaster preparedness, but now I’ll move to Michelle because I think that’s an interesting concept. Floods are followed by malaria, by cholera, by other diseases which are waterborne or water mediated. So in our disaster preparedness, how well are we able to use technology, first of all, not just to capture what’s happening, but also to anticipate what is likely to happen next so that we are prepared. Maybe give us a little insight, Michelle.

Dr Michelle Wangui:
Okay. Thank you very much, Dr. Getao for the question and also thank you, Grace, Angela and Kelvin for those very good insights about data in disaster management. So as Kelvin has alluded to, we have quite a strong surveillance system for diseases in Kenya. It is actually called the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response System. And it doesn’t just exist in Kenya, it also exists in other African countries, actually most of them. And in terms of collecting data about the actual incidence of diseases, that surveillance system is very good. And I’m sure by monitoring the trends over time of how the diseases are occurring, indeed it is possible to predict what is likely to happen next. And also because this data collection has been going on over a period of many years, there’s an idea of the seasonality of the diseases and there’s also an idea of the patterns of how these things happen. So yes, it is possible to predict the likely cause that is likely to happen for the diseases. that are being monitored. But my feeling is that in terms of prediction, there’s actually much more that could be done with the technology that we have in future to leverage our technology to get much better predictions of what is likely to happen in future. Perhaps some of the other panelists may have some insights about this.

Katherine Getao:
Sorry. Thanks, Michelle. I’m sorry. I’m also technology-challenged sometimes. So thank you for pointing out that Kenya, for many years, has had disease surveillance, where data is regularly collected at dispensaries and health centers down to the grassroots and shared with the center. So we have lots of data from the past. Now, Alphonso, maybe you can talk a little bit Now, Alphonse, maybe you can tell us a little bit about Liberia. I have a feeling that maybe technology is not as available at the grassroots. And, you know, maybe you can tell us a little bit about the internet penetration and how that is viewed in terms of disaster response. Is the government seeing this as a priority to help you respond to health and other disasters? Please go ahead, Alphonso.

Alphonso Wilson:
Thank you, Dr. Getao. Over the previous months, again, in terms of the use of technology and data management, Liberia has really benefited immensely over the years in terms of, like, being recently declared a disease-hazardous country. I was really troubled in Liberia, but because of USAID and the help of other international partners came together, we put a lot of technology in the system to communicate, like for example, we had an incident in 2022, there was something called polio, polio we had a case that happened in the rural area, but that case would have been noticed without the use of technology. Well, as soon as it was noticed, it was definitely posted on Facebook and the national partners, our health organization was able to track that and then engage the situation to prevent that from happening. And another case has to do with the issue of cholera. Cholera has been one of the major diseases that has been troubling our society. But with proper data management, we’re able to improve, we’re able to improve the data, we’re able to improve on where the causes came from, the population size, and we’re able to see how we can separate those cases and ask to do them for proper treatment. And having the use of technology, we’re not able to communicate those incidents back to our foreign partners. And just to elaborate on what one of our partners said, the person of Chris, Liberia, in terms of technology, they were able to help us at least meet the COVID-19 situation that just recently occurred. We had the use of to communicate that to our local people, which is the farmers, the locals, from our rural environment. We added the use of technology, which is Facebook, WhatsApp, and iMovie. We were able to communicate the message in different, different forms of languages, that our people could understand and know that COVID is in Liberia, COVID is real, because what the international community were communicating to our country, our locals could not understand the language, but in order for them to understand the language, we were able to translate the information into our local languages, as I said earlier on, and was able to help them get a proper understanding about COVID and how to isolate themselves and how to prevent COVID. It also helped us in reducing the spread of COVID in Liberia. That’s how technology helped Liberia. Back to you, Dr.

Katherine Getao:
Okay, thank you very much, Alphonse, for both showing how, you know, a simple existing social media platforms can actually alert us to quite serious issues and also how this is being used to communicate in an easier and more cost-effective way. Now, I saw that Angela wanted to chip in after Michelle. I’m sorry I noticed that late, but we’re going to go into our last round of questions, because I’d like to leave a little time at the end for some burning questions. So, because Angela wanted to speak, I’ll hand over to you, Angela, but I also want to ask you to give your wish. Where are you seeing an opportunity for the use of social media of technology in disaster preparedness or disaster response or disaster management. So as you chip into what Michelle said, please also give your final remarks on the future of the use of technology. So we’ll start with Angela, we’ll go to Kelvin, then Alphonso, then Michelle, and finally Grace.

Angela Oduor Lungati:
Thank you, Katherine. I think I’ll actually manage to put in my thoughts to capture both my response to Michelle and answering this question. I think one of the challenges that I have, and I think it’s something that spans beyond just the disaster management space, it’s a thought that got triggered when you asked about what it is we can do to be better prepared for crises as they come along. And it’s, I think one of the biggest challenges that we are facing currently, especially within the wider data ecosystem, is that we seem to have a significant amount of data. We’ve gotten really good at collecting data, but extracting insights in a timely manner for it to be useful is still a bit of a challenge, right? I think one of the biggest pressing points for us, and that is at the core of our mission, is how do we incorporate people’s lived experiences to help us get a better understanding of what it is that is going on. And that tends to be a big gap. So you have tons of scientific research, a lot of official data that’s being collected, but not enough around what people’s lived experiences are that could possibly help to provide some deeper understanding around how to predict what could be coming, what aspects of social listening are we doing prior to crises popping up that could help us to be more prepared make that easier. And I think that would require a bit of introspection around the choice of the tools that we use in the first place to either engage or collect data. There is a bit there around creating data-sharing frameworks, just so that we are facilitating learning not only within our borders but also across borders, and not creating situations where you have two or three different groups that are collecting the same type of data but are not communicating with each other. And most importantly, also looking at the digital tools that are available right now and figuring out how to innovate around those, so that it doesn’t feel like we have to go for the new shiny thing but the thing that is most appropriate. And that requires us to also look at who the major stakeholders are in this conversation and around crisis preparedness and response. Who are the people who need to be in the room? Who are the people we need to be engaging with? What tools do they have access to? And in what form do they need to have access to that information to then drive our decisions around what digital technology tools we need to leverage? I know that AI also holds a lot of promise, given that it can come in and help us with processing data much faster, generating insights in much bigger ways. But we also have to deal with the challenge of not having adequate representation and coverage of local languages, especially within the African continent. So I would hope that we can also spend a little bit more time and effort to think about how we can also facilitate that coverage within the African continent. Thank you, Katherine.

Katherine Getao:
Fantastic, Angela, and very practical. And I believe the contacts you’re making today can form a starting point for that more common platform. I’ll now move to Kelvin, your wish list. What should we be doing going forward?

Kelvin Njenga:
On top of my wish list? would be empowering communities. Communities, communities, communities. It is my opinion and one of the strongest opinions also of Kenya Red Cross that sometimes we do not even need to respond to the communities. We call ourselves first responders but the communities are the first responders themselves. The first person to support that person who has a crisis is actually the person next to them which most of the time is usually the community member. If we are able to empower communities then at times we can avert a lot of disasters, we can save a lot of resources, we can divert a lot of things from happening. So that is one. The empowering of the community by what tools do we provide to them, what trainings do we give them, what is accessible to them, how much information already sits with the community members that we do not have, how can we tap into the information and knowledge and the capacity that communities have and we use that to support, to help them support themselves when a crisis comes up. So crowdsourcing this information and this knowledge from these community members I think it can you know put us ahead in terms of response. That leads me to my next point. I think as Angela has said there is a lot of value to be realized from by the use of AI and AI is one of the ways that we can actually you know crowdsource this information or build an environment where Communities can openly share information with humanitarian organizations. Communication can happen both ways. I’ll briefly talk about two platforms that we are developing with the support of Microsoft and Safaricom. We are actively developing a platform that will help us predict population movement in times of disasters that can help us preposition resources when the crisis actually happens. There are a lot of crises that make populations move, things like floods, things like drought and also conflict. So if we are able to know where these communities are going, we can already preposition resources and at the time of response it will be very easy. It’s easy to think about this concept when you think of floods. We do not have resources to support these communities everywhere and sometimes roads are cut off. So if we preposition these resources well, it will be very easy to reach out to these communities. So besides satellite imagery, drones and all these complicated technology that we have, one great resource is actually the community members. By leveraging on existing platforms like social media, that is WhatsApp, Facebook, we can collect that information through some social media learning machine predictive algorithm. It will be possible to actually know what is happening in the communities from time to time. The last thing is on policy and that also adds to what Angela has said. I think we need policies that actually allow us to respond, that support humanitarian organizations to prepare. well and to respond in times of crisis. While data protection is very important and we take that very seriously, how are we able to come together as organizations? How can we have frameworks that can allow us to co-create and work together during these disasters, when disasters happen? For Kenya Red Cross, we have early action protocols that actually set aside resources, dictate the kind of technology to be used, dictate the procedures of operation. Perhaps if we have a consortium and we are able to have policy frameworks that work for all of us, it would really allow the power of technology to come out and support. I know that right now there is a bill, there is the disaster management bill that is currently I think at the Senate. What does this bill say? How does it allow humanitarian organizations to continue their operations with the digital tools that are currently there? So these kinds of things can actually really push us ahead in the quest of supporting communities during disasters. Thank you very much. I submit.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you for that, Kelvin, working together. That’s music to my ears and we’ll soon have Grace and Michelle talking, so they’ll tell us a little bit more about policy. But for now, I’ll move to Michelle. What’s your last want or need as we conclude on the panel?

Dr Michelle Wangui:
Okay. First on my wish list is better prediction. What are the risks? What is the likelihood of occurrence? What is the likely impact? So that, as Kelvin has said, we can prepare in advance to respond. Second on my wish list is actually just a thought. You know how in marketing, the marketers are able to predict how people are going to respond to their messages. And one of the challenges that we have is when, let me just say that again, one of the most effective ways to deal with the disasters and the health risks that we face is by inspiring the community to change behavior. For example, like during COVID, we had things like hand washing, wearing masks, which is really the best way to deal with it because it actually prevents people from getting sick in the first place. So I wish there was a way that we could target our messages to different audiences, different communities, so that we inspire them to behave in a way that will promote their health and well-being. So one is in communicating with the communities and two is better prediction for better preparation. Over. Thanks.

Katherine Getao:
OK, thank you so much, Michelle. Sometimes it’s hard to predict, especially when the Gen Z’s move in very fast. Secondly, I don’t know whether the next bill we’re going to address after the finance bill is the one that Kelvin has referred to. So I think there’s a lot to learn. a lot more discussion needed. Maybe in future we’ll deal with this issue of data protection in one of our webinars because it seems to really cut across the needs of many different sectors. So as we go on, I’ll turn to Alphonso. What is your wish list there in Liberia, in West Africa? How do you want to see technology being better used for disaster response?

Alphonso Wilson:
Okay, thank you, Dr. Getao. Yeah, my wish list is an improved data management system in our country that will enable us to have a better tracking, to respond to issues. Like if you observe our health sector right now in Liberia, information gathering is one of the weakness in our health sector. Like you look at our medical center we have in Liberia right now, which is Memorial Hospital, they don’t keep track of medical history. All those things are done manually. And over time, you observe that all those documents are damaged by, you know, mosquitos, rats, and so on and so on. So data management is one of the key things on my wish list for Liberia because it helps us to plan. It also helps us to monitor and give better reporting because in terms of better data management, it also helps to evaluate and assess the impact of disasters as well. So that’s how key data management is. Two on my wish list is operational support. Operational support is one of the key things that is lacking in Africa, not only Liberia. We speak a lot of good things. We hope GMO technologies, when it comes to support, is very poor. Then we also have to develop, what I wish there is to develop, a range of disaster response tools. What I wish there is, what, to develop a range of disaster response tools that would help communicate, inform partners in responding to disasters. If you observe, in most instances, to natural disasters, and some man-made disasters, we are more in responding to resolve issues than preventing issues. And I think that Africa, we should be able to gravitate for this, and be able to have more response tools in place. And also, we have to establish an emergency response team. Decentralize in rural counties. Well, in Liberia, we call it counties, you know, rural areas. We have to establish an emergency response team, and decentralize it in our rural areas, to help inform central government on happiness in our rural counties or environments. And also, to develop an early warning, and early actions. To enable us to inform central government as well. Looking at our system, and happiness in the world, I think, based on those few points, I have just online operational support, to continue to develop a range of disaster response tools, and also to establish a disaster management information team. Where you can report information. issues would be reported, which is hardly lacking in Liberia. For example, if you have an unruly situation, when you even call our emergency line, there’s no response. For example, if an outbreak of any disease, the education is not there to our locus to inform them. And I think a periodic briefing from our health teams and those who we consider to be our informers, there should be a periodic briefings from our local radio station in different dialects, different languages, informing our locus, creating an awareness for them before the disaster. Back to you, Doctor.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you so much, Alphonso. And certainly, I think everybody is hearing you about the needs that you have identified. And I think some of them could actually be addressed by some of the organizations represented in the panel. And I hope you’ll all keep in touch. So Grace, not least, you’re actually getting last word. What is your wish list for this area going forward?

Grace Mutung’u:
Thank you. A lot has been said that I fully agree with, especially on the issue of involving communities. I totally, totally agree with that. This is because it is people who know what they are suffering. And also because anyone who’s lived in any place in Africa in the last five or so years has… really noticed the crisis that we are facing, even from, you know, the extreme weather that has been happening in many different parts of the continent. And so it cannot be business as usual. There’s need to really empower people so that they can also be able to respond to the crisis that they themselves face. But I really worry about where investments are being made. I think people or entities and organizations and states as well are still living in a different era or a different mentality where they still that rush to collect and collect and collect more data. Sometimes it’s not even clear for what reason. Sometimes it’s just, you know, for speculation, sometimes for future control. Like if you think about the example of the disasters that are due to climate change, one of the main responses has been to digitalize every person so that somebody can be able to follow them. And, you know, so there’s been a lot of biometric registration of persons. But is that for disaster management? Is that for early warning? Is that something that is being done in order to help people when disaster strikes? Research shows that it’s more for control of migration and that it’s actually creating dependence when people are not able to move freely or when there are so many barriers to movement of people. So I think we really need to think about this question of where the investments are being made and to refocus the investments to be able to connect to the other crises that are causing these disasters. For example, you know, climate. change. And I think the one thing that is there on my wish list, because sometimes I do understand why humanitarian agencies collect data, Kevin has really made a good case as to why sometimes the data has to be integrated. But I also come from a digital rights perspective and understand why data should be data collection and processing should be minimized. I think at the end of the day, whatever side you come from, it’s really, really important that in this digital age, we go back to the very traditional principle of do no harm. I think that will help us in whatever situation we are caught up in whether we want to use new tools like artificial intelligence, let us first remember or be guided by the principle of do no harm so that there’s some thinking that goes into whatever tool we are going to apply in disaster response and disaster management. Thank you.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you so much, Grace. And I can see somebody has put a study in the chat from World Food Programme about the return on various types of disaster investment. So maybe you can look at that as you consider the important question that you’ve raised underneath. Now, we don’t have much time. But I’ve seen that there are some questions about climate change, which I think should be one of the priority issues when it comes to disaster preparedness. We’ve seen not only what’s happening in Africa, but in Europe, with the heat waves, which is unusual for them, and has led to health problems, for example. So if there’s anyone who can have a little bit of insight on that issue of what’s being done in the climate change area. And as you’re answering that one, maybe, I don’t know whether it’s Kelvin’s hand, which might be up for that particular question. There are other questions about whether we are collaborating with other parts of the world. Actually, I think the world has a lot to learn from Africa. We’ve handled some crises very well in the health area. So I believe we’re sharing this information with other parts of the world. And I’ve seen a question about, no, I think I’ll just stick to those two. Does anyone want to chip in on the climate change issue just in the last few minutes?

Angela Oduor Lungati:
I can start and be brief.

Katherine Getao:
Okay, go ahead.

Angela Oduor Lungati:
So one of the biggest challenges that I think we’ve seen with regards to responding to the climate crisis is it still feels like an issue that is being tackled by a small subset of people. There’s not nearly enough contextualization of what exactly climate change means for the local person, for that farmer who is looking at his crop yield being less than what it usually is over the last couple of years. And there’s also quite a bit of misinformation that’s doing rounds. I think you’ve heard of the concept of climate deniers and the likes. And so for me, the biggest call to action would actually be, how do we, because coming out of this crisis, when we’re talking about Africa getting warmer, the world getting warmer by 1.5 degrees centigrade and thinking about how we adapt to the crisis, just like COVID-19, it’s going to require collective responsibility. So how do we make the local person understand what climate change is and how it’s going to impact them to trigger a reaction around how to use, for example, alternative sources of energy or something different. I feel like, especially within the African continent, we are likely suffering the biggest brunt of the crisis but not nearly enough understanding of where it’s coming from and what we can collectively do on our own to come out of the crisis. So I think there’s a bit of contextualization work that needs to go on there for local people to understand and jump in.

Katherine Getao:
Thank you very much for that, Angela. Concise and helpful. Yes, there’s a question on the cyber diplomacy. I think that is very pertinent because, for example, the floods didn’t just happen in Kenya, they happened in Kenya and Tanzania, and there are many, many disasters that cross boundaries. Right now, it looks like the whole of Africa is joining in with Argenzis in their protests. So things can happen in more than one country or they can spread from one country to another. So yes, there’s a role for cyber diplomats, especially the comment I’ll make is that with our unique problems, I think African cyber diplomats need to come together and come up with some key policy issues where they can address the rest of the world, whether it’s data sharing, whether it is methodologies for funding cross-border kind of disasters and so on. I can see Alphonso’s hand is up, so I don’t want to do all the talking. Alphonso, we have just about three minutes, so please go ahead.

Alphonso Wilson:
Yeah, shortly, I think I’ll be very brief. Yeah, in response to whatever, in the issues of the climate change, I think there have not really been much emphasis or discussions on the impact this could have on Africans or on our climate. I think our leaders need to take responsibility because if we don’t try to take responsibility now, a few years from now, it will be more disastrous. Because if you look at what our system was just saying, there have not really been much communication to our locals. All they understand is, oh, climate change, climate change, what does it mean? I think our leaders in various countries need to take ownership of this problem because this is a huge problem. Like right now, in Liberia, what we are facing right now in Liberia, we have never experienced it before. We are experiencing a very heavy rainfall. The rain that we have never seen since our country was established. This is what we are experiencing right now. And the storm, huge storm, it’s all because of the cutting down of the trees. Those animals that have been hunted. I mean, our locals need to understand. But our leaders are not taking responsibility. There is no awareness. There is no sensitization to our locals. So you will experience that. This will keep happening. So I think one of our leaders need to take responsibility. I think this should be done in a holistic form. I mean, Africa doesn’t have to come together because Liberia problem should be seen as a Kenyan problem. Kenyan problem should be seen as a Liberian problem. In that, we can fight this climate change in a formal and mannered way. will have a better climate that everyone will have, I mean, where we will belong to and enjoy being in such an environment. Because, I think, I gave you an example, I don’t know what’s happening in Kenya, but if you observe, of recent, like three months ago, there was a storm in Liberia, damaged so many houses, so many, I mean, concrete buildings, that’s never happened in the history of Liberia before. In recent, again, there was a huge flood in central Morovia, in our country, that has never experienced before. To an extent, the citizens got angry, blocked the streets, called government attention, because our government has been leciting, you know, behaviour to citizen crowds. Or they are too much involved into politics. Politics has taken over our society, and that which is causing a serious problem to Africa, not just Liberia. A climate change, if here, is not taken with urgency, if it’s not treated with emergency, I mean, in five years from now, the disaster Africa will experience will be quite dangerous than what we are experiencing right now. Back to you.

Katherine Getao:
So thank you for that passionate contribution, Alphonse. And now we are drawing to the close. Actually, we’re just bang on six o’clock in Kenya, but I know it’s different times in different places. I’d like to very much thank our panellists in alphabetical order. Alphonso from Liberia, Angela from Ushahidi, Grace, a humanitarian lawyer and civil activist. Thank you. Red Cross, and Michelle from the Ministry of Health in Kenya. Thank you so, so much. I hope you’ll all put flowers and all the other fancy things just to express your thanks. They’ve been brilliant panelists and we’re so privileged to have them. I thank Mwende. I thank the Arvin and Boris, the technical team that has been supporting us. And by the way, there’s as good material in the chats as the one that was in the recording. So I hope all that is captured because it’s very important information in the chat as well as, yeah. And also very great thanks to Jovan Kubalija. He’s usually very busy and the fact that he made a little time to be with us, very much appreciated. Now, I’d like to say that if you have interest or if you would like to be a panelist, please do contact Mwende through the Africa page so that we continue to have relevant subjects in this webinar. And also we’d like to have a contribution from Africa and around the world. So please, if you can tell us what you’d like to hear about and if you have something where you are an expert, please do offer to be a panelist. We’d be so grateful. We want to see more African participation. So now I’ll hand over to Mwende to close with my really very sincere thanks to all panelists and also to the technical team and to every one of you who made time to be with us this afternoon, evening, morning, depending on where you are. Thank you so, so much. I’m really appreciative. Mwende.

Mwende Njiraini:
Yes, thank you so much, Dr. Getao for moderating such a very interesting. a discussion. We are grateful to the panelists, as she has said, for taking your time to be with us and to express some very important information on the topic of disaster management. So with that, we had a few questions. I don’t know how we are going to manage them, but we can respond. Maybe I’ll share them with the panelists and then we can respond to the people that asked them, so that they don’t feel left out. So I think that’s what we are going to do. So with that, I’d like to close this session and thank you everyone for your contribution and wish you a very good night, good evening, good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are logging in from. So thank you so much and God bless you. Thank you.