TOP 5 NGO TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
Tech is changing humanitarian aid in ways we wouldn't have dreamed of only a decade ago. 21st century technologies and digital innovations have brought in a new era to the NGO world.
NGO & AID NEWS
By Geno Teofilo
7/31/20263 min read
Technology is advancing rapidly, perhaps more quickly than at any time in history. In recent years, NGOs and UN agencies have benefitted from many technological advances. These are making aid and emergency response quicker, cheaper, and more efficient than ever before (in some places).
As part of this, there have been many software applications and computer programs which have also made great advances for the NGO aid world, but software and specific computer applications will not be addressed here. Aside from them, here are the top 5 NGO tech innovations for humanitarian aid, being implemented that are bringing major benefits to beneficiaries, and the NGOs using them.
1) Mobile money – cash relief by phone. For years and years, NGOs distributed to people in need, items like food, water, shelter, clothing, and other material items people needed after a crisis. Sometimes, people received supplies that they already had, and sold them, flooding the local markets with cheap goods, hurting local economies. This century, in some areas aid evolved into giving people cash in their own currency, so they could buy exactly what they needed. Besides resulting in appropriate aid purchases, this strengthened local markets. Then with the rise of cheap mobile phones, a small number of daring NGOs, (including Oxfam, where I worked during the Somalia famine) decided to take the next step: give people in need digital money on mobile phones. If they didn’t have a phone, no problem, give them one. They were cheap, and even Somalia had cell phone coverage in most locations. This was safer than cash relief, as stacks of cash were more easily stolen. Encrypted phones with passwords for a digital wallet were more protected and discreet. Digital cash via mobile phones is definitely the way of the future for aid.
2) Drones – While drones have recently gained reputations for destruction in Ukraine and in the Middle East, drones have quietly been making great advancements in the NGO world. In several countries in Africa, drones have already been delivering vaccines for years. Drones have brought other packages of urgently needed medicines to remote villages. As the technology improves, more and more NGO aid will be carried via drones into remote areas and crisis zones, quicker than it’s ever been delivered before.
3) Satellite Phones – While this has been around since the late 20th century, the technology for these has also been improving by leaps and bounds. While mobile phone towers continue to be built in remote areas, many are still without any mobile phone signal at all. Add to this, that when a hurricane/earthquake/disaster devastates any area, regular mobile towers are often severely damaged, or electricity is out, leaving no phone signals available. So ‘sat phones’ will continue to be needed for NGOs responding to immediate disasters. Early versions of sat phones were bulky, had a base station plus a handset, and were terribly expensive to use per minute. Newer versions are far more compact now, with single handsets. They cost less, and have more companies to choose from for competitive service.
4) Satellite Internet – Much like the need for satellite phones above, when there’s a new disaster, internet infrastructure is frequently knocked out. Sometimes UNOCHA steps up to help. When working after the Asia Tsunami in Indonesia, the hard hit city of Banda Aceh lost internet connectivity often. To fill in the gaps, UNOCHA installed a huge satellite dish, and let all NGO staff walk up and plug into their internet whenever NGO offices lost their connections. Thanks UNOCHA.
5) Satellite Imaging – As more and more satellites orbit our earth, they’re being used more and more for humanitarian uses. Immediately after major disasters, and during displacement crises, satellite photos can provide immediate aerial views of a disaster zone or crisis area. This aids assessments of what is happening on the ground. Topographical photos are also used to give seasonal analysis of growing crops, harvests and rainfall effects. These are vital for predicting possible food crises (even famines), droughts, forest fires and other wildfires, and measuring the effects, and aiding in planning the responses to these crises.