NEWS RELEASE
International Amateur Radio Union
International Secretariat
P.O. Box 310905
Newington, CT 06131-0905 USA
FAX: +1 860 594 0259
E-Mail: iaru@iaru.org
2 May 2001
For immediate release
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) announces the approval by the International Telecommunication Union Development Sector (ITU-D) of two landmark documents related to amateur radio disaster communications in developing countries. These documents represent the culmination of two years of work by the IARU and ITU-D Study Group 2 chaired by Nabil Kisrawi of Syria.
The first is Recommendation ITU-D 13, Effective utilisation of the amateur services in disaster mitigation and relief operations. It recommends that administrations include the amateur services in their national disaster plans, reduce barriers to effective use of the amateur services for disaster communications, and develop memoranda of understanding (MoU) with amateur and disaster relief organisations. ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Hamadoun I. Touré announced the approval of Recommendation ITU-D 13 on 12 April. It will be available in English, French, and Spanish from the ITU bookshop at www.itu.int.
The second, now being finalised for printing, is the Disaster Communications Handbook for Developing Countries. This was a joint effort of the IARU and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) with contributions from L.M. Ericsson (Sweden), Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) (USA), and others. The Handbook, to be published in English, French and Spanish, will have three parts devoted to policy, operational and technical considerations of disaster communications. It is one of a series of Handbooks being produced by the ITU-D under the coordination of Maurice Ghazal of Lebanon for use by developing countries. The Handbook is scheduled for printing this year and will be available from the ITU bookshop.
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