Nigeria Crisis - ETS Concept of Operations
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- Nigeria
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- ETC
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Background
A decade into the crisis, communications infrastructure remains severily affected, characterized by a lack of – or non-existent – reliable and safe telecommunications, mobile networks and Internet services, especially outside of urban areas. This gap was identified as of one the main impediments to enable humanitarian programming and ensure the safety of humanitarian actors when operating in a complex operational environment.
Since its activation in November 2016, the Emergency Telecommunications Sector (ETS) has been providing critical shared security telecommunications services in the capital states in Maiduguri and Damaturu, and Internet and security telecommunications in the eight humanitarian hubs in Borno State to enable efficient humanitarian operations.
Needs Assessment
• An initial assessment was conducted in September 2016 to evaluate the insfrastructure and services in place in North-East Nigeria and to determine the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) gaps. Findings showed that humanitarian responding to the crisis were in need of security communications and reliable connectivity services to carry out their jobs efficiently and safely as services from local service providers were non-operational in most of the proposed field common operational areas and non-reliable in metropolitan areas.
• The ETS carries out frequent missions across North-East Nigeria to ensure fully operability of ETS services deployed. During these missions, the ETS engages with users of its services and with the wider humanitarian community to identify gaps and evolving needs. During 2018, the ETS has provided communications services to 103 organisations, including UN agencies, local and international NGOs and governmental organisations.
• As part of the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2019, the ETS is appealing for US$3.4 million to continue providing vital communications services across North-East Nigeria, including coordination and Information Management, expand services to common operational areas as required and to map the communications needs of the affected population.