Last update: 06/2004
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What is ECHO 14 POINTS?
Objectives
How does it work?
Achievements
Who benefits?
The role of IDA
Technical information
Documentation
What is ECHO 14 POINTS?
ECHO 14 POINTS is a web-based telematic network which supports the electronic exchange of information between the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), European Union Member States and UN-OCHA, concerning governments' funding decisions in the humanitarian aid sector. The need to develop such a system is due to the notable increase in the frequency of serious crises in the world. It also reflects the EU's willingness to play an integral coordination role in international humanitarian actions. It is against this background that the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) was established in 1992.
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Objectives
The ECHO 14 POINTS system has been developed with the key objective of answering the need for better coordination of humanitarian aid decisions between ECHO and EU Member States. An added benefit aims to be better communication between these bodies and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) through a web-based network.
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How does it work?
The ECHO 14 POINTS system allows remote data entry directly by the Member States, via a telematic network. Using web technologies Member States can directly enter and modify data remotely. This allows rapid dissemination through the Internet as soon as the information is posted by a Member State, meeting the operational coordination requirements of other Member States and interested parties. A password protected module allows Member States to exchange information on their plans using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. The system periodically transfers ECHO's and Member States' input to OCHA's consolidated international database, further reducing manual data entry and encoding errors by each public administration.
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Achievements
- ECHO 14 POINTS enhances the shared European Community facilities encompassing shared humanitarian aid plans, thus strengthening the cooperation between the different actors.
- Approximately 100 records are exchanged on a monthly basis.
- Online consultations now take place on a regular basis (a search option to extract information is available on the Internet) and live data can be downloaded in XML or flat file format.
- The ECHO system is operational since September 2002. The users can configure their profiles to receive notification emails when there is a new confirmed report. The system periodically sends updated information to OCHA using FTP (file transfer protocol).
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Who benefits?
Citizens and Businesses: Access has been facilitated by sharing a common database and publication of information on the ECHO website.
Public Administrations: Humanitarian authorities in Member States and in the Commission (ECHO) are the main beneficiaries. ECHO 14 POINTS makes their actions more effective, especially during crises, and so provides faster and better relief to victims of humanitarian disasters. Whilst not quantifiable, the availability of electronic data and the quality improvement:
- Provide advanced and coordinated notice of developing problems that may indicate a need for political action at European, national or regional level;
- Accelerate decision-making/policy processes;
- Improve a common follow-up of the progress achieved;
- Guarantee a more simultaneous delivery to all recipients;
- The use of standards/formats enables greater transparency and re-use of information by automated tools that collate, analyse and abstract meaningful information from data.
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The role of IDA
IDA has been funding the development of the ECHO system, which makes use of IDA generic services such as TESTA which is used to support the connection to the application (even though it is also possible to connect via Internet) and CIRCA which is used to exchange documents and to plan future actions.
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Technical information
|
Project start date |
2001 |
|
Project completion date |
2003 (second phase) |
|
Project status |
Implementation |
|
IDA budget |
2001 € 175,000
2002 € 75,000
2003 € 35,000 |
|
Responsible service |
European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) |
|
Project coordinator |
Luis Angel Nieto Moreda |
|
Contact |
idabc@ec.europa.eu |
|
Countries involved |
All EU Member States |
|
Public website |
https://hac.cec.eu.int/
http://ec.europa.eu/echo/index_en.htm |
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Documentation: |
Print
ECHO 14 points Guidelines (PDF)
