This is an excerpt from UNHCR’s recently released report: Beyond Technology | Innovation at UNHCR 2015. This report highlights and showcases some of the innovative approaches the organization is taking to address complex refugee challenges. If anyone still pictures a...
In late 2015, UNHCR – in collaboration with local partner AMIDEAST – established Tawasul, a humanitarian call centre in Yemen. Tawasul, meaning dialogue in Arabic, was the first of its kind in Yemen and shared humanitarian information through a toll-free number five...
“Never assume you know the communications eco-system – never think you know how people share information and which sources they trust better than community members themselves”. These were the words I found myself repeating in South Sudan, whilst supporting the recent...
At the World Humanitarian Summit in May, Google, Mercy Corps, UNHCR Innovation and ThoughtWorks were lucky enough to win an award for having one of the Top 5 Innovations of the World Humanitarian Summit for our collaborative project Translation Cards. While...
Technical Top Trumps Having never worked with an innovation unit -let alone been in an innovation ‘Lab’ before-it’s fair to say I had an ‘innovation complex’ when starting as the Emergency Lab Manager. For many, innovation is synonymous with the use of technology....
Urban refugees sometimes have a wealth of assistance at their fingertips, and yet no comprehensive, up-to-date and accurate online resource to help them access it. UNHCR Innovation tackled this issue with a challenge through UNHCR Ideas and came up with a winner: a...
