By Jeremiah Archibong
Foundation for Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta, PIND has launched an SMS early warning system in the region and trained 30 members of Partners For Peace, P4P to man the system in Cross River State.
According to the Coordinator of Peace-Building Unit of PIND, Nkasi Wodu the SMS line is to aid law enforcement agencies in collecting reports of dangers and forward to the appropriate quarters.
The objectives of the SMS early warning system are to highlight the importance of early warning in conflict management and peace-building, to introduce the IPDU SMS-based early warning system, and to demonstrate the application of the IPDU SMS-based conflict early warning platform in peace-building activities.
He further stated that “Generally, early warning systems serve three major purposes. These include: Prevention (Avert), Mitigation (make less violent), and Preparedness (awareness, alertness and readiness). In conflict management, the essence of early warning is to gather accurate and timely information from specific incidents in order to prevent, mitigate or prepare for appropriate and timely interventions.
“There are three key components of an early warning system which include: Information Gathering, Analysis (crisis mapping, risk analysis etc.) and Communication or Reporting.”
Explaining more about the platform, Nkasi said: “It is an SMS-based early warning and peace messaging online platform that collects, collates and analyse conflict incidents. It has the capacity to receive text messages with a feedback mechanism for auto response. It has the capacity to make voice calls and forward bulk SMS to designated phone numbers and email addresses in real-time. Forwarded messages can be downloaded in excel format for easy analysis.
“The primary database of the platform is populated with phone numbers of P4P network members. The platform receives conflict incident messages, analyse, verify and disseminate to appropriate stakeholders for strategic interventions. It has the capacity to verify reports and correct misleading information through voice calls. It includes features that conceal the identity of senders and flag (highlight) sensitive reports for urgent attention. And the platform also has a bulk SMS feature for sending advocacy and peace messages”.
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