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How can technology support a humanitarian response event round up
Couldn't make our latest event? Don't worry! Catch-up on the action from our '3 Sided Cube Talks: How can tech support a humanitarian response' IRL event here...
3 min read
Event
The world is at a critical juncture.
Over 339 million people around the world are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection.
The highest numbers since the Second World War. Countless more are affected by fragility, conflicts, and vulnerability. Above all, effective international humanitarian aid can save lives. Humanitarian responses operate with the primary goal of preventing loss of life, and aid plays a critical role in mitigating the effects of crises, conflicts, and disasters.
Technology is changing how we monitor, understand, and respond to conflict and to humanitarian crises. New and emerging innovations can support this paradigm shift from reaction to anticipation by enabling earlier, faster, and potentially more effective action.
Hundreds of millions of people are being impacted around the world and that number is rising daily.
Which is exactly why we held this event.
To gather a room full of passionate individuals working in the humanitarian sector and hopefully be the catalyst for some much-needed collaboration in this space. Did I also mention sprinkling in an all-star, grand-slam panel to ensure an incredible discussion with the experts?!
Let me tell you more about the event…
But first, we offset!
Offsetting our event
Early on in the initial planning process of this event, it was important to us that our gathering didn’t tread on the planet. So we partnered with Footprint because sustainability should be at the core of every event. Around 85% of the waste produced at events ends up in landfills. This is why we said not today, Satan when it came to ordering all the lanyards and swag that normally come with putting on an event.
As a ‘for good’ organisation we have a duty to continually challenge and change the status quo of how we operate.
We swapped out freebies for more sustainable options, and printed promotional material on biodegradable paper. There are so many more green options out in the world that we should be utilising to help reduce waste and combat the climate crisis.
We took a “no more shit promise” and vowed our gathering would not do the earth dirty!
And with a solution like Footprint, we were able to keep our word. They allowed us to bring a whole new dimension to our in-real-life events. We offered our attendees the option to off-set their travel, allowing them the opportunity to decrease their carbon footprint and support an endangered rainforest project all while attending our event and networking with like-minded individuals.
With the offsetting and delicious vegan breakfast behind us, we were ready to kick-off the panel discussion, and our Client Success Director, Bina Nanavati, was just the woman for the job!
Our experience supporting the humanitarian sector with tech for good
At 3 Sided Cube, we have been lucky enough to work with some truly amazing organisations helping to support those who need it the most. Be that improving the wellbeing of refugees or supporting life-changing blood donations, we are proud to have worked on a variety of such impactful applications that impact millions of lives across the world.
We want to change millions of lives for the better and be a trusted technology partner for organisations with generating social impact baked into the core. W aim to do that by building life-saving and life-changing digital products for our fantastic clients. A few of those projects that we have been honoured to partner on are:
Empowering users to prepare for climate-affected hazards with the Emergency app
Mother nature can be devastating, so our disaster management app needed to be robust enough that people could rely on it. The American Red Cross approached us with the idea of a platform that allowed users to prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural disasters.
The solution was a native app that allows you to monitor more than 35 different severe weather and emergency alerts in your town, and other cities that matter to you, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados. This platform for the American Red Cross allows them to communicate with the population in an entirely new way, providing a real-time solution during numerous disasters and enabling users to contact loved ones to let them know they’re safe, find the nearest shelter and track the storm.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
An app to support the improved wellbeing of refugees
We were approached by UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) as they wanted to develop new innovative technology solutions that improved the wellbeing of refugees and encouraged more private-sector donations. UNHCR wanted a secure way for donors and refugees to communicate with each other directly – without the filter of an organisation – to build mutual understanding and knowledge, shift attitudes and allow high value donors to understand how their donations were making a difference.
The solution, Connecting Worlds, is a react native app that consists of multi-language content targeted at multi-countries. The app is focused on security, with the safety of refugees being paramount for UNHCR so we included many checkpoints in place to ensure this.
Why we build apps....and sometimes host events
Collaboration is key.
If we can facilitate an opportunity to bring the best and brightest in the humanitarian sector together, have these important conversations and attendees partner up and go off to find solutions to these every growing crises, our job is done.
Along with building life-saving and life-changing technical solutions for our fantastic clients, we have a webinar series, podcast, and IRL events all with the singular goal to bring people together and talk through solutions to the very real crises facing us globally.
We love building tech for good, but we take our mission to change millions of lives for the better very seriously so are always looking for ways to encourage transparency and collaboration and scream from the rooftops what a powerful ally technology is and our different activities allow just that.
We know the tech. We do not claim to be experts on every problem. So we bring in the experts!
Events like these are fantastic because it creates a catalyst for some very important conversations, and our hope, change. With a room full of the most passionate and engaged individuals in the humanitarian sector, we were truly honoured to facilitate the conversation about how tech can support this space with the incredible people living and breathing it.
We are firm believers that if you get enough smart and passionate people in one room, change happens.
Meet the A-Team (panel)
We were absolutely thrilled to be joined by some truly inspiring panellists from amazing organisations:
Elizabeth Shaughnessy, Digital Programmes LEAD, OXFAM
Dr. Melanie Garson, Cyber Policy & Acting Director of Geopolitics, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
Tessa Kelly, Director of Development, Habitat for Humanity
Missed us live?
And that concludes another ‘3 Sided Cube Talks’! We love having these conversations and engaging with businesses, charities, and individuals to help change the world. We truly believe that tech is limitless in its potential to impact the global challenges we face. If you have any suggestions or want to get involved in a future talk, shout us a holla!
If you missed us on the day, we hope this round-up has been useful! Be sure to sign-up for our next live event!
Published on May 25, 2023, last updated on May 25, 2023
