Summary
Collecting and sharing timely, reliable and accurate information during a crisis is critical to improving humanitarian response, maximizing resources and minimizing human suffering. The faster humanitarian organizations are able to collect, analyse and disseminate critical information, the more effective the response becomes and the more lives are potentially saved. Though humanitarian information functions, systems and tools have improved in the past five years, a combination of operational, funding and technical constraints, combined with a lack of awareness, continues to handicap information from becoming a core, wellresourced component of relief operations.