Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI)

Creation of CIDI

It is in this stream of thought that the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI) was created in 1988. As a reaction to some of the findings on missing information during and after disaster relief activities, CIDI came into being on the basis of a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID) and initial support from the computer technology and IT consulting corporation IBM. The center operates as a program under Partners for Community Solutions in Washington, D.C., and maintains an office in Arlington, Virginia. During the last 20 years, CIDI has become a valuable resource to the general public, as well as U.S. government agencies, foreign embassies, and international corporations. In general, the center provides information and guidance in support of appropriate international disaster relief for the general public. Its Website, http://www.cidi.org, has up-to-the-minute information on the latest natural disaster on Earth. Today, many individuals, groups, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world have come to rely upon CIDI's resources and services in order to provide more effective international emergency assistance. The center has handled several hundred thousand public inquiries related to international emergencies. CIDI also posts educator resources regarding natural disasters and humanitarian responses.

Disaster information can be analytically divided in two types: The prevention phase, which is before a disaster has occurred; and the emergency phase, the time after a disastrous event has hit a region. The idea is that citizens should have immediate access to new data, such as what is considered the current standard for seismological data. The center's Website provides manuals for giving effective material donations to relief agencies.

Today, a major aim of the center is to deliver information about international disaster relief strategies and on how to offer aid and assistance during a disaster, as well as to implement various targeted public awareness activities. A major goal of the Website is to refer users to a database that attempts to match offers of appropriate donations of goods and services with relief agencies. This was undertaken when it became clear that the public's generosity is often misplaced, since inappropriate donations for international relief activities have made headlines. The center thus strives to educate the public on how to respond in a useful and productive manner. The center's guidelines for appropriate international disaster donations is mainly available in English, but is also available in French, Spanish, Greek, Kreyol, Indonesian, Arabic, and Farsi. It has been adopted by many key players in their own public information materials.

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