UNHCR Digital Gateway Contact Centre
Connecting People, Easing Access, and Strengthening Protection
The UNHCR Digital Gateway Contact Centre is a transformative communication platform that makes it easier for forcibly displaced and stateless people to reach UNHCR – and for UNHCR and partners to respond faster, more consistently, and more effectively.
What It Does
The Contact Centre integrates multiple communication channels—such as phone, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and even face-to-face interactions—into a unified platform.
Whether people reach out through a mobile phone, an online portal, or in person, their messages reach the right place.
Why It Matters
For people forced to flee:
Displaced individuals can contact UNHCR through channels they already trust and are easily accessible to them, making it easier and safer to ask questions, seek help, or share feedback.
For humanitarian responders:
Staff and partners get a single, clear view of all incoming requests, making it easier to respond, follow up, and collaborate across teams.
How the Contact Centre works
Multichannel Support
Phone, WhatsApp, SMS, email, in-person visits, and online portals—selectable based on local needs.
Guided routing and handling
Structured routing and categorisation help direct interactions to the appropriate teams, supporting timely and accurate responses. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) allows callers to select their preferred language and the type of support they need.
Centralised interaction management
Each interaction is logged, categorized, and assigned for follow-up, supporting continuity, reducing duplication, and ensuring that interactions are not lost across platforms.
Monitoring and insights
Dashboards and reporting tools provide visibility on volumes, trends, and response patterns, identifying gaps and closing the feedback loop.
Integrated Knowledge Base
A central searchable repository of verified information ensures people receive accurate and consistent responses and can be easily updated.
Built for humanitarian contexts
The Digital Gateway Contact Centre is designed to operate across a wide range of humanitarian settings. It can be implemented as part of the broader Digital Gateway or deployed independently by operations, depending on context, capacity, and priorities.
Can operate without needing access to full case management systems
Suitable for refugee, internal displacement, or mixed contexts.
Supports collaboration with partners through secure data-sharing protocols
A shared platform for collaboration with partners
The Digital Gateway Contact Centre supports coordinated engagement across humanitarian actors by:
- Supporting referrals to and from partners, including NGOs, UN agencies, and government counterparts,
- Providing controlled access for partners to receive and manage cases through a dedicated interface.
- Enabling secure data exchange between systems through the PRIMES Interoperability Gateway (PING) to complement existing case management systems and feedback and response mechanisms. This supports stronger coordination and reduces fragmentation across the response.
A Sudanese refugee interacts with her smartphone as she navigates the new onboarding tool provided by UNHCR. This digital tool empowers new arrivals to easily request a registration appointment. ©UNHCR/Pedro Costa Gomes
A user testing the Digital Gateway prototype to provide feedback to the Digital Service team in Rwanda. ©UNHCR/Ana Carolina Tome Pires
A secure and scalable digital solution
The Digital Gateway Contact Centre is built on trusted, enterprise-grade technology and is maintained centrally by UNHCR. It is hosted on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, supporting secure, multilingual, and scalable deployments across regions.
The solution aligns with global inter-agency standards for feedback and accountability and is designed to evolve as operational needs and digital capabilities develop.