Technology For Humanitarian Action

by Kevin M. Cahill

Overview

Humanitarian workers around the world struggle under dangerous conditions. Yet many do not have the technological tools readily available elsewhere to help them realize their mission to provide essential services and save lives.

This book, the fruit of a historic conference, is a practical guide to current technologies that can help relief and humanitarian aid workers succeed. Designed to facilitate needed technology transfer to the humanitarian sector, the essays focus on areas where technology is underused and predict where new technological advances may be applied to relief efforts.

The essays cover essential areas: communications technology and infrastructure support and security. They describe how such technologies as personal identification and tagging systems, software radios, wireless networks, and computer-aided language translation can promote safety and manage large groups of people. Other essays outline new technological solutions to such challenges as mine removal, water purification, and energy generation.

The contributors are: Kevin M. Cahill, Frank Fernandez, C. Kumar Patel, Paul J. Kolodzy, Joseph Mitola III, Victor Zue, Jaime G. Carbonell, Stephen Squires, Joseph V. Braddock, Arthur L. Lerner-Lam, Ralph James, William L. Warren, and Regina E. Dugan.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823223930
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2004
Series:	International Humanitarian Affairs , #4
Edition description:	2
Pages:	334
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kevin M. Cahill, M.D. is UniversityProfessor and Director at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham Universityand the President of the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation in New York City. He is also a Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine and Molecular Parasitology at New York Universityand Director of the Tropical Disease Center at Lenox Hill Hospital. He has served as the Chief Advisor on Humanitarian and Public Health Issues for three Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly and for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. His career in tropical medicine and humanitarian operations began in Calcutta in 1959; he has carried out medical, relief, and epidemiological research in 70 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He has written or edited 33 books, translated into many languages, and more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals on subjects ranging from public health and tropical diseases to humanitarian assistance, foreign affairs, Irish literature and history. He holds numerous Honorary Doctorates from universities around the world.