The Innovation Index Experiment UNHCR’s Innovation Service has been undertaking an experiment. We created an Innovation Index; our first attempt at measuring how we’re doing when it comes to innovation in our field operations. We never released the product. This...
Peak ‘There’s an app for that’. During the Europe ‘crisis’ of 2015 we experienced a huge surge in volunteer resources, many people wanting to volunteer came with great software/app development skills. At this time, refugees faced significant communication gaps, and...
The purpose of this blog series is to encourage people to begin their own grassroots humanitarian projects. By sharing my own experiences with Zaatari Radio I hope I can inspire as many other people as possible to take action and begin their own innovative projects....
In a recent blog, I commented about the reliance on text-based communication in humanitarian settings. Leaflets, banners, notice-boards and signs often proliferate in emergencies. I’m not anti printed materials, and there is often real value in quality signage, but...
When I’ve recommended a mobile phone distribution, to strengthen our communication with communities, I’ve seen a lot of colleagues recoil in horror. Not because they don’t want to communicate with refugees and host communities by phone – many already do –...
Only a few years ago, what was considered ‘innovative’ was using phones – in any way possible – to engage with communities. Time moves quickly, eh? With the advent of chatbots and messaging apps, using ‘plain old’ SMS seems...
