Engaging in Civil-Military Information Sharing (8 JUL 2021)

Information has become, for military and civilian organisations, a strategic asset in today’s operating environment.  Its primacy will grow exponentially in future operations as the most important and valuable tool. Thus, the need to gather data in a structured way distinguished by its cleanliness and quality reflects the inevitability of enhancing Civil-Military Information Sharing. However, despite the increasing availability of information and advances in information technology, the military and civilian organisations, same as individuals, are still struggling in sharing information. The different mindsets, cultures, roles, levels of classification, and absence of agreed procedures and standards have been identified as the core constraint to this challenging relationship. Furthermore, knowledge deficiency among the organisations on how to whom, what to share are hampering a structured and effective exchange of information. The CCOE seminar “Engaging in Civil-Military Information Sharing” addressed these issues and portrait possible solutions.

Therefore the experts Commander René Halfmann, Branch Chief Lessons Learned & Analysis at the CIMIC COE, Mr Ronaldo Reario, Lead at the UN OCHA Operations Support Team, and Mr Godfrey Takavarasha, Member of the Partnerships Team at the UN OCHA Centre for Humanitarian Data discussed the conceptual observations and understandings of Information Sharing while comparing with practitioners’ experience.

They engaged in a presentation round, in which all three experts shared their knowledge and understanding on the subject of Civil-Military Information Sharing. The seminar concluded with a question and answer session, where participants were encouraged to address the speakers for more details.

Initial orientation was provided to the audience and speakers by the provision of the following guiding questions:

  • What are impediments and promoters of Civil-Military Information Sharing?
  • How can we foster Civil-Military Information Sharing?
  • How does Information Sharing play out in the digital domain?

Feel invited to discover background information about our speakers and their response to the audience’s questions by approaching the speaker’s bios and the seminar minutes.

If you are interested in other Civil-Military topics, we recommend you to have a look at our seminar series.


Additional literature:

Information exchange and coordination of bilateral assistance in the early phase after major disasters

Tool for Data Collection

Information Sharing in Military Operations

OCHA Data Responsibility Guidelines

 

Commander Rene Halfmann

CIMIC Handbook (CCOE)

UN-CMCoord Handbook

Information exchange and coordination of bilateral assistance in the early phase after major disasters

Information Sharing in Military Operations

A guide on how to formulate Information Requirements