The telephone is the most critical piece of technology for resettled refugees’ connection to family members in terms of availability and familiarity. However, it is not without challenges – such as the limited communication technology choices back ‘home’ and the costs involved.
Technology has some but not all the answers to the many problems associated with poverty and displacement. However, amongst the internally displaced Somali population of more than two million, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, people are beginning to have access to basic banking services. This is due in part to their use of remittance enterprises that they trust as a reliable and well-established way of receiving and sending cash.
While information can attest to the severity of need and call people to action, it can also be collected, stored and shared in a way that violates safety and ethical standards for data collection. These challenges are particularly acute when it involves survivors of gender-based violence. Not only is survivor consent often missing in the data collection process but identifying details about the survivor and service provider are also often shared.
During the rescue and rehabilitation phases following the 2010 Pakistan floods, Sightsavers and its partners knew that certain groups of marginalised people, such as people with disabilities and older persons, would be at greater risk of neglect. In response to this, Sightsavers supported one of its partner organisations, STEP (a disabled persons’ organisation), to establish the Information Resource Center on Disability (IRCD) as a point for information sharing and dissemination for the two districts of Nowshera and Charsaddah.
New technologies of communication allow new types of action and partnership between social movements in Colombia and international NGOs, who support them in claiming their rights or in denouncing abuses. International cooperation and advocacy have allowed the suffering of victims to be seen by the outside world and have led to justice being done and reparations being made.
In today’s world, ‘protection’ cannot be complete without access to technology. We must use new tools and technologies to empower refugees, given the importance of the internet, social media and distance learning. In recognition of this, UNHCR is striving to ensure that access to technology – primarily, the internet, mobile phones and solar lights – is strongly incorporated into its protection and operations model.
UNHCR has been investigating collecting data using smartphone technology for many areas of its operations such as site assessments and refugee profiling. In 2010 it carried out a pilot to assess the advantages and disadvantages – including feasibility, cost, time and human resources – of using mobile phones compared to existing paper-based data collection for a mosquito net coverage survey in Dadaab in Kenya.