Incident Reporting App: Emergency Smartphone Response

Increasing numbers of people are in critical need of humanitarian aid – and more funds than ever are needed to meet their needs. These challenges require new approaches – which is why the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) has launched the first Call for Proposals under the DRA Innovation Fund (DIF). This initiative sees humanitarian organisations join forces with the private sector to develop innovative proposals to tackle urgent humanitarian challenges.

The Incident Reporting App will transform the way security incidents are reported – and ensure greater safety for humanitarian workers in the field.

Humanitarian workers frequently encounter security situations in their work which need to be properly reported. A recent analysis revealed that many security incidents go unreported to coordinating offices, in part because people experience practical barriers to do so in a quick and easy way. The reporting of security incidents is often only done orally – which means that security managers often do not receive a complete picture. This limits their ability to adequately advise staff and senior management on security matters, which leads to reduced staff safety.

The Solution

We propose to address these issues through the development, distribution and roll out of a user-friendly Incident Reporting App. The roll out will be supported by additional training and awareness-raising on security. To ensure we are not re-inventing the wheel a more thorough research on existing solutions in both NGO and Private sector is part of this project. The Incident Reporting App must be low-cost, easy to implement, and add value to other NGOs too, which is why we consult other NGOs right from the start.

The Results

We intend to distribute the Incident Reporting App amongst our humanitarian partners – with the aim of improving and increasing Incident Reporting. This ensures NGOs are better informed and can draw on an improved base for decision making. The structural use of the App results in improved staff security and saved lives. Any humanitarian organisation that wants to use the app is invited to adapt it for their own use.

The project is expected to result in the initial roll out of a functional app within the ZOA organization by mid-2019.

Lead Applicant: ZOA

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