In this blog Oxfam publishes a report that gives a glimpse on the use of ICTs in humanitarian response. The report details activities, outcomes of the Scaling Humanitarian ICTs Networks (SHINE) project. Similarly e-Agriculture forum on ICTs and resilence provided use cases of ICTs in humanitarian situations in the agricultural domain Natural disasters such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, diseases epidemics and man-made crises such as conflicts, war and socio-economuc shocks still bedevil communities and affect agricultural activities. Are ICTs a tool in a humanitarian response...
There are about 500 million small-scale farmers on Earth, and most of them live on less than $1 a day. They’re often separated from larger population centers, or lack the means to educate themselves on specialized farming methods. Internet connections might be less common in the developing world, but mobile technology is pervasive. Today, 90% of smallholder farmers are able to access a basic mobile phone. In Africa especially, people have turned directly to mobiles instead of owning first personal computers. WeFarm is a peer-to-peer (P2P) knowledge sharing platform for small-scale farmers in...
The USAID’s Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) signed a partnership agreement with the Ghana Fisheries Commission and Tigo Ghana called "Tigo Fishers Network Initiative." which aims to provide fisher folk with tailored mobile solutions using Tigo platform. In Ghana, 10 per cent of the population work directly or indirectly in the fishing sector, which generates over one billion dollars in revenue annually and accounts for at least 4.5 per cent of Ghana's GDP. Photo Credits: stopillegalfishing.com Tigo Fisheries Network will provide fisher folk information access on best...
For poultry farmers in Bangladesh, avian influenza can be a devastating problem. The avian influenza, called H5N1 HPAI, is highly pathogenic and spreads very fast. Once the flu is spread out, birds can die in 5 to 10 minutes from it and the farmer sees its poultry farm devastated. This information fact sheet sets out to show how an SMS Gateway system developed by FAO has been used to improve rural communication, support animal disease crisis management and contribute to livelihood resilience for small-scale farmers in Bangladesh. Focusing on the case study of avian influenza in Bangladesh,...
Ecosia is a search engine that plants trees each time you search for something. The Bing-powered search engine earns about half a Euro cent with each search and spends 28 cents to plant a tree. So to plant one tree Ecosia only needs about 56 searches. This way, the Berlin-based search engine has already planted over 7 million trees worldwide. Ecosia has focused on planting trees as it presents countless advantages, among which fighting climate change, restart water cycles, turn deserts back into fertile forests and provide nutrition, employment, education, medical assistance and political as...
The World Food Program (WFP) is officially partnering with WeRobotics to develop coordination mechanisms to guide the safe and effective use of aerial robotics (UAVs) in response to humanitarian disasters. Assisting 80 million people in around 80 countries each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. UAVs are increasingly recognised by humanitarian organizations for their potential effectiveness in disaster response...
Open Tenure is an open source software designed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to help communities to better govern their natural resources. It uses handheld tablets, and a community server allows community members to map and collect data on land tenure claims in their community. The data can then be viewed and moderated, and important documents and photos can be stored electronically for safekeeping. This video presents the Open Tenure trial with a community forestry group in northwest Cambodia during 16-20 February 2016. The participants were quick to...
FHI360 is currently looking for people willing to share information on the deployment of any digital technology innovation that is - or has the potential to enable individuals, communities or systems to be more resilient. FHI360 is interested to collect information on a wide range of digital technologies such as: mobile-based communications, sensor technologies, gaming, big data applications, etc. Submissions will be compiled into an inventory of innovations that will be published and shared with the development community as a reference. Outstanding innovations might also be selected to...
The G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Declaration 2017 "Towards food and water security: Fostering sustainability, advancing innovation" published after the meeting held on January 22nd 2017 in Berlin, acknowledges the importance of ICTs for agricultural development, following the discussion on ICT in agriculture initiated at the G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting in Xi’an in 2016. The Agriculture Ministers acknowledged the potential of ICTs for improved food chain efficiency, productivity and sustainability of agriculture, improved animal husbandry practices and for adaptation and mitigation...
Learn about how drones can be used in the humanitarian and development sectors by joining the webinar below. Drones have been used in agriculture and other fields, drones play an important role in mapping activities, damages assessment and facilitate the search and rescue operations. Date & Time Wednesday, February 22, 2017 18:00 CET Duration 1 hour 30 minutes Description How to use drones in the humanitarian sector? Mapping aereas of natural disasters and assess the damage on facilities is an essential part of the emergency response and it can be done thanks to drones. These tools can...
