Next month GISF executive coordinator Lisa Reilly and GISF Researcher Raquel Vazquez-Llorente, together with Peter Wood from Oxfam GB, will be taking part in a panel discussion at the 2015 Humanitarian Innovation Conference. The conference will be held in Oxford on 17 and 18 July 2015, and aims at exploring the challenges of creating an enabling environment for humanitarian innovation. It is hosted by the Humanitarian Innovation Project, in partnership with the World Humanitarian Summit.
In a session targeted to policy and programming staff, as well as risk managers, the panel will discuss the opportunities and challenges that new communications technology bring to humanitarian access and the sustainability of humanitarian programmes in conflict and emergencies.
In the last decade, humanitarian organisations have been investing in more proactive acceptance strategies, but often forgetting to look at the impact that digital interactions have in the security of staff when we replace the traditional ‘tea in the market’ by Skype meetings with beneficiaries. To date few efforts have been made to understand the specific nature of the security threats created by the digital revolution, and their implications for security risk management. Nor have there been many efforts to understand the ways in which communications technology is creating new opportunities for humanitarian agencies to respond to emergencies and the impact these new programmes have on how we manage security risks and ensure sustainable humanitarian access.
You can find more information on the conference and access the full programme here.
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