Announcing the GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action Cohort
Tuesday 14 November, 2023 | Blog | Disaster response | Innovation Fund | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Preparedness | Refugees and forced migrants
Following the successful GSMA Innovation Fund Bootcamp that took place prior to MWC Kigali in October, we are pleased to announce our new cohort of organisations in the GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action. On 24th November 2022, the GSMA and UK ...
Sesame Workshop Impact Story: Supporting children in response to humanitarian emergencies in MENA
Friday 28 July, 2023 | Arabic | Blog | Innovation Fund | Innovation fund and grants | Lebanon | Middle East | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Refugees and forced migrants | Turkey
Over the past three years multiple disasters have impacted populations in the Middle East and North Africa – including the Beirut port explosion, Türkiye-Syria earthquakes and the ongoing violence in Sudan. Sesame Workshop’s Ahlan Simsim initiative, which received a ...
World Food Programme renews partnership with the GSMA to bolster humanitarian assistance
Monday 15 May, 2023 | Blog | Financial Inclusion | Financial inclusion for women | Gender | Global | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Mobile Money | Partnership engagement | Preparedness | Refugees and forced migrants
This blog was originally posted by the World Food Programme on 10 May 2023 on Relief Web. The renewal will help empower more women with mobile money and strengthen emergency preparedness as climate shocks and other crises increase. The World Food Programme (WFP) is ...
Saving lives through mobile-based early warning systems
Tuesday 2 May, 2023 | Blog | Global | Global | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Preparedness | United Kingdom
Recently the UK tested its new public alerts system that will be used to warn people if there is a danger to life nearby and share information on how to stay safe. Early warning systems have long been used around the world to save lives by sending alerts regarding ...
An early look into application trends for the GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action
Thursday 20 April, 2023 | Blog | Disaster response | Global | GSMA Innovation Fund | Innovation Fund | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Preparedness
340 million people are projected to need humanitarian assistance in 2023 — a figure that has grown exponentially in the past decade. Humanitarian needs can be triggered by a range of factors, including natural hazards such as floods and cyclones and man-made disasters such ...
South Sudan – The challenges and opportunities of mobile for displacement-affected communities
Monday 27 March, 2023 | Blog | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Refugees and forced migrants | South Sudan
South Sudan became the world’s newest country on 9 July 2011 after decades of conflict. Sadly, since then the population has continued to suffer from inter-communal tensions and conflict as well as economic insecurity and flooding. Bor, the capital of Jonglei State, ...
Digital worlds of displacement-affected communities: Lessons from returning findings to participants
Wednesday 15 March, 2023 | Africa | Asia Pacific | Blog | Lebanon | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Papua New Guinea | Refugees and forced migrants | South Sudan
Participants contribute a considerable amount of time, effort, personal experiences and stories to research. However, they are rarely updated on the results. Not only do research teams miss a vital opportunity to reflect on the value and accuracy of their findings, but it is ...
Papua New Guinea – Challenges and opportunities in the digital worlds of displacement-affected communities
Monday 20 February, 2023 | Asia and Australia | Blog | Digital literacy | Disaster response | Mobile access and use | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Papua New Guinea | Refugees and forced migrants | Uncategorized
Reaching Iowara refugee settlement in Western Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a challenge. The nearest city, Kiunga, is accessible through a combination of boat and car although rainy season can easily take out the road, leaving access by foot as the only option. In many ...
Digital inclusion and exclusion amongst refugees in northern Lebanon
Thursday 2 February, 2023 | Blog | blog | Disaster response | Lebanon | Middle East | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation
For longer than a decade, Lebanon has hosted more refugees (mostly from Syria) proportional to its population than any other country in the world. The economic reality for these people is difficult, with nine in 10 families living in extreme poverty, compounded by broader ...
Top tips for GSMA Innovation Fund applicants
Thursday 5 January, 2023 | Africa | Asia Pacific | blog | Blog | Disaster response | East Asia and Pacific | Innovation Fund | Innovation fund and grants | Latin America & the Caribbean | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | South Asia | Sub-Saharan Africa
Submitting your pitch proposal for the GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action – Tips and thoughts from previous grantees Applying for the GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action requires submitting an application form, where several ...
Mobile innovation in anticipatory humanitarian action
Wednesday 7 December, 2022 | Africa | Asia and Australia | Asia Pacific | blog | Blog | Climate Resilience | Disaster response | East Asia and Pacific | Europe and Central Asia | Innovation Fund | Latin America & the Caribbean | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Preparedness | Resilient technology | South Asia | Sub-Saharan Africa
As disasters globally increase in frequency and severity, it is more important than ever for the humanitarian community, and partners across other industries, to strengthen systems of anticipation, preparedness, and resilience. Anticipatory Action refers to acting ahead of a ...
Increasing awareness and preventing sexual and gender-based violence through mobile-enabled gamification
Friday 25 November, 2022 | Blog | blog | Digital literacy | Gender | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Rwanda | Sub-Saharan Africa
Violence against women and girls is one of the world’s most prevalent human rights violations. Worldwide an estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in their lifetime. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) undermines its survivors’ ...
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action opens today
Thursday 24 November, 2022 | Blog | blog | Disaster response | Global | Innovation Fund | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Uncategorized
I am pleased to announce the launch of The GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action. The fund will provide grants and additional support to organisations that leverage digital technology, especially mobile, to deliver solutions which anticipate potential ...
Leveraging mobile technology to meet humanitarian needs through strategic partnerships
Friday 26 August, 2022 | Africa | blog | Blog | Burundi | Disaster response | Kenya | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Partnership engagement | Policy and regulation | Public-MNO | Resilient technology | Somaliland
Partnerships between the mobile industry and the humanitarian sector have been increasing remarkably since the onset of Covid-19, with more humanitarian organisations adopting digital solutions to deliver assistance. The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation (M4H) ...
Three lessons from Ahlan Simsim, Sesame Workshop’s GSMA-funded innovation project
Tuesday 19 July, 2022 | Blog | Disaster response | Education | Middle East | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Refugees and forced migrants
The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The second round of the Fund focused on; testing new technical solutions; catalysing ideas to improve or transform ...
World Refugee Day – The power (and limits) of mobile technology
Saturday 18 June, 2022 | Africa | blog | Blog | Disaster response | Europe and Central Asia | Global | Innovation Fund | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Refugees and forced migrants | South Asia | Sub-Saharan Africa
Worldwide 89.3 million people are forcibly displaced 27.1 million of these people have crossed a border and are refugees. As a result of conflict, violence, human rights violations, and increasingly severe climate shocks, a growing number of people are forced to flee homes ...
Three lessons from FlowKit, Flowminder’s GSMA-funded innovation project
Tuesday 17 May, 2022 | blog | Blog | Disaster response | Ghana | Haiti | Innovation fund and grants | Latin America & the Caribbean | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Mozambique | Preparedness | Resilient technology | Sub-Saharan Africa
The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The first round of the Fund focused on providing support to help to test or scale innovative ideas which support responses to ...
User perspectives in humanitarian settings: Initial insights
Tuesday 10 May, 2022 | Africa | blog | Blog | Country | East Asia and Pacific | English | Financial inclusion for women | Lebanon | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile | Mobile access and use | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Papua New Guinea | Refugees and forced migrants | Resilient technology | South Sudan
In September 2021, the Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation team kicked off a large-scale piece of mixed methods research in partnership with the UNHCR and The Research People. Our goals were to better understand how people in humanitarian settings use their mobile phones, to ...
EarthSpark; Powering resilience in Haiti
Friday 22 April, 2022 | blog | Blog | Disaster response | Energy | Haiti | Innovation Fund | Innovation fund and grants | Latin America & the Caribbean | Mobile access and use | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Resilient technology | Rural network coverage | Smart infrastructure
In conversation with EarthSpark; Staying flexible in the face of a sudden-onset disaster Since 2020, EarthSpark International has been a part of our Mobile for Humanitarian (M4H) Innovation Fund Portfolio. The Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology ...
Mobile for humanitarian innovation in 2021
Thursday 24 March, 2022 | blog | Blog | Disaster response | Frontier Technology | Global | Innovation Fund | Mobile access and use | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Partnership engagement | Preparedness | Refugees and forced migrants | Uncategorized
Publishing our 2021 annual report provides the opportunity to reflect on another eventful year in our Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation (M4H) programme. Humanitarian needs continued to rise, and digital services and solutions were increasingly used in preparedness, ...