Capturing the humanitarian imagination: Improving the delivery of aid through innovation
29 November 2011
Four more innovative projects have been awarded large grants of up to £150,000 by the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) after a second successful funding call.
The Fund, which is managed by ELRHA in partnership with ALNAP, was officially launched in October 2010 to help develop innovative solutions to the challenges of delivering effective humanitarian aid. Since then, the HIF has made two calls for large grant proposals and has funded a total of eight projects.
The large grant facility supports the development, implementation and testing of innovation in humanitarian contexts. The four successful projects in this latest round were chosen by the Fund’s grants panel of leading independent experts from over 150 applications.
One of the successful projects, managed by UNICEF, will receive funding to develop new technology to rapidly collect and distribute data on separated children. Pernille Ironside, Senior Advisor for Child Protection in Emergencies at UNICEF, stated: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Humanitarian Innovation Fund on this exciting initiative which has the potential to transform the global humanitarian response to reunifying children separated from their parents and caregivers in emergencies.”
“Rapid FTR” is designed to streamline and speed up Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR) efforts both in the immediate aftermath of a crisis and during ongoing recovery efforts. The technology’s versatility and open-source nature allows for each organisation to use it on a device of their choosing as well as share data safely between organisations when necessary. RapidFTR has been developed for the web and Blackberry platforms; however this project will extend the functionality and support other devices, specifically Androids and Netbooks, creating instances of RapidFTR that are fully independent of the need to connect to the internet.
Internews Europe will also receive a HIF grant to create a sustainable emergency preparedness and response mechanism that will connect local media, humanitarians and affected populations through a tangible and sustainable two-way communication channel. “Very often, humanitarian responses are undermined because people’s information needs are not met and relief agencies don’t communicate enough with them,” said Jacobo Quintanilla, Internews Humanitarian Media Director. “This project is a step towards getting this vital component right, so we are delighted to have this opportunity to further experiment with, capture and share innovative approaches.”
The other projects to receive funding include a financial incentive mechanism, managed by Care Nederland, which unites community and ecosystem based Disaster Risk Reduction measures; and a project lead by Valid International aimed at quick, easy and cost effective assessment of coverage & access for use in Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM).
Full details of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, the projects funded and the different types of funding available can be found at www.humanitarianinnovation.org.
