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ABSTRACT
Employing ICT platforms has the potential to improve efforts to assist displaced people, or to liberate them in being more able to help each other, or both. And while platform development has resulted in a patchwork of initiatives – an electronic version of ‘letting a thousand flowers bloom’ – there are patterns emerging as to which flowers grow and have ‘staying power’ as compared to ones that wilt and die. Using a partial application of grounded theory, we analyze 47 platforms, categorizing the services they provide, the functionalities they use, and the extent to which end users are involved in initial design and ongoing modification. We found that 23% offer one-way communication, 72%, provide two-way communication, 74% involve crowdsourcing and 43% use artificial intelligence. For future developers, we offer a preliminary list of what leads to a successful ICT initiative for refugees and migrants. Finally, we list ethical considerations for all stakeholders.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Fulbright Foundation in Greece and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department, which supported Joseph G. Bock’s work in Greece to assist the Mayor of Athens and his staff in responding to the influx of displaced people during 2015–2016. We also are grateful for the support we received from the American Arbitration Association-International Center for Dispute Resolution Foundation for subsequent work in Athens on violence prevention in 2017-2019. Finally, we appreciate the insights very much provided by reviewers of this article, whose feedback and guidance are reflected on these pages.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributors
Joseph G. Bock is Director of the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development at Kennesaw State University. He was previously at the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame. His humanitarian work has included directing Catholic Relief Services’ programs in Pakistan and Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza Strip, and overseeing programs in Bosnia, Croatia, Guinea, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Thailand, and Uganda while serving as Vice President at American Refugee Committee. He learned most of what he knows about violence prevention in South Asia. His most recent humanitarian work was as a Fulbright Specialist with the Municipality of Athens, Greece, where he assisted the Mayor and his staff in their response to the influx of refugees and migrants during part of 2015 and 2016. His articles on technology and violence prevention have appeared in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Information Technology for Development, and Political Geography. He is the author of three books, the most recent one, The Technology of Nonviolence: Social Media and Violence Prevention, was published by MIT Press in 2012.
Ziaul Haque is a Ph.D. candidate in International Conflict Management at the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development at Kennesaw State University. He is also an Assistant Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests include international development, peace technology, ICT4D, digital humanitarianism, ICTs for refugees and migrants, and digital peacebuilding.
Kevin A. McMahon is a former Wall Street quantitative analyst, investment banker, and London equity trader. During the financial crisis, he served as Global Treasurer and head of M&A for a Fortune 500 financial firm. He holds a B.Sc. in Accounting from Boston College, an MBA in Finance from the Lubin School of Business, N.Y., a Masters in Theology from Fordham University in N.Y. and is a Ph.D. candidate in International Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. He currently serves as Practitioner Faculty of Finance at Providence College in Rhode Island.
Notes
1 LGBTQI refugees and migrants are a particularly vulnerable group, targeted regularly for violence, according to Marina Galanou of the Greek Transgender Support Association. She indicates that after fleeing violence in their home countries, they find that they are also targeted within camps of refugees and migrants. The Greek Transgender Support Association has had to repeatedly provide emergency protection in their offices in Athens. Interview with Marina Galanou, 14 June 2018.
2 For a helpful description of a strategy for the future development of ICT4RM platforms focused on affordability, availability and usability, see UNHCR (Citation2016).
3 Souktel. (http://www.souktel.org/media/news/syrian-refugees-aba-souktel-launch-mobile-legal-info-servicem).
4 Ankommen (https://ankommenapp.de/?lang=en). Also see Toor (Citation2016).
5 See the “additional information” at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.br.ankommen&hl=en_US
6 Refugee.Info. (http://www.souktel.org/media/news/syrian-refugees-aba-souktel-launch-mobile-legal-info-servicem).
7 Crisis Info Hub. (https://github.com/google/crisis-info-hub).
8 Interview at the offices of the Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee Issues, August 30, 2017.
10 Ibid.
11 This platform is at help.unhcr.org.
12 UNHCR–Help. (http://help.unhcr.org/languages/en/).
13 Ibid.
14 TERA (Trilogy Emergency Relief Application) and beneficiary communication. Retrieved from http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/beneficiary-communications/tera/.
15 See the “additional information” section at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.welcome_app_concept.welcome2germany
16 Setelin: Great resources when you settle in Sweden. Retrieved from https://www.setel.in/#/app/categories.
17 Home4Refugees (https://www.home4refugees.org/.)
18 Race the Face (https://familylinks.icrc.org/europe/en/Pages/Home.aspx).
19 REFUNITE (https://twitter.com/REFUNITE?lang=en).
20 What I Learned While Rapid Prototyping in a Refugee Camp [ Blog Post] (5 November 2014). Retrieved from https://refunite.org/what-i-learned-while-rapid-prototyping-in-a-refugee/
21 Mobilearn (https://se.mobilearn.com/en/).
22 Service Advisor (http://jordan.servicesadvisor.org/#/?language=EN).
23 AMFI International (http://www.amfinternational.org/).
24 Virtuous Triangle (http://www.virtuoustriangle.com/).
25 Capital Digital. Retrieved from http://www.unite-it.eu/profiles/blogs/capital-digital-belgium.
26 These three are seminal articles, although decades old. These authors point out the importance of teachers’ training, knowledge management, and children’s learning experiences.
27 Innovation Transforms Education (https://reliefweb.int/report/kenya/innovation-transforms-education-refugee-students-africa).
28 Ssyla Digital Therapy Platform. (http://eusic.challengeprizecentre.org/selected/23/ssyla-digital-therapy-platform/).
29 Information on this tool kit can be found at https://youth.gov/federal-links/refugee-services-toolkit.
30 MedShr (https://en.medshr.net).
32 Biometric Cash Assistance. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/innovation/labs_post/cash-assistance/.
33 MONI (https://moni.com/).
34 Venmo (https://venmo.com/). Note that the creation and use of biometric data can, of course, enhance the ability of governments and corporations to track people. There are, therefore, ethical considerations related to how the data can potentially be used for discrimination, oppression, or to enhance the accuracy of marketing pitches.
35 Transferwise (https://transferwise.com/).
36 Solidarity Salt (https://www.solidaritysalt.com/).
37 Solidarity Salt (https://www.facebook.com/solidaritysalt/).
38 Refugeeswork.at (https://www.refugeeswork.at/).
39 Interview at Manpower Group in Athens, February 26, 2016.
40 As noted by UNHCR, a job “provides the individual not only with an income but also with independence, social status, and recognition. UNHCR’s Executive Committee has recognized that promoting the self-reliance of refugees from the outset will enhance the sustainability of any future durable solution” (Citation2007, p. 4).
41 Rafaqi (http://www.rafiqi.net/).
42 Entrepreneurial Refugees (https://entrepreneurialrefugees.bidx.net/).
43 CUCULA (https://www.cucula.org/).
45 RefugeesWork (http://www.refugeeswork.com/en/info).
46 While others saw refugees, this German professor saw human potential. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/02/09/513700808/while-others-saw-refugees-this-german-professor-saw-human-potential.
47 German labor report (https://qz.com/1364947/more-than-300000-refugees-have-now-found-jobs-in-germany/).
48 Migrantour (http://www.mygrantour.org/en/).
49 Mobilearn (https://se.mobilearn.com/en/).
50 Gherbtna (http://8rbtna.com/).
51 The Digital Principles Forum has promulgated guidance on how to make successful ICT deployments in international development work. We find their list of principles helpful. Retrieved from https://digitalprinciples.org/principles/ Our list of three requirements for success correspond to three principles of the Digital Principles Forum: Design with the user, understand the existing ecosystem (which relates to functionality); and build for sustainability.
52 migreat (https://www.migreat.com/en/).
53 The City at a Time of Crisis (http://www.crisis-scape.net/).
54 Techfugees (https://techfugees.com/about/ and https://www.facebook.com/Techfugees/?fref=nf).
55 REFUNITE. (https://REFUNITE.org/).
56 Personal communication with G. Balestra, August 9, 2017.
57 A similar phenomenon is sometimes at play with conflict mitigation organizations that operate in locations struck by disaster, as did Foundation for Co-Existence (FCE) in Sri Lanka. FCE’s focus was on conflict early warning and early response. After the tsunami in 2004, FCE staff members in the field encountered people who essentially said “we do not care about peace right now … what we need is food and shelter.” FCE’s donors argued that the organization should not engage in humanitarian relief (“stay in your lane, focus on your core competencies”) but the FCE staff insisted that they had to help with food and shelter because their efforts to bring peace were seen as frivolous otherwise.
58 Sudan’s dictator wants satellites to stop spying on his crimes. (2011). Wired Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2012/09/sudan-satellites/.
59 UN Office for Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect (http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/about-responsibility-to-protect.html).
60 Integreat allows for different municipalities to upload data that are specific to that geographical area, while providing information that is common among all locations. See Schreieck et al. (Citation2017). Information on Integreat can be found at https://integreat-app.de/idee-wirkung/.
61 MesPoint (http://www.meshpoint.me/).