Sustainable Connectivity after the Emergency Response Phase

Editor's Notes

• #3: World Vision is a global Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. World Vision works in 99 countries in various parts of the world.
• #4: WV Works in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Middle-East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and we have offices in North America and Oceania
• #5: As a child-focused organization, we believe that every child should: Experience the love of God and others Should be well-cared for, protected and should be heard Should enjoy good health Should be educated for life These aspirations and associated objectives do contribute towards the 2030 SDGs
• #6: We do undertake activities in health and nutrition, WASH, Education, Child protection, food security and livelihoods.
• #7: We also do have activities related to disaster management. Looking at emergency response In 2015, WV responded to 137 emergencies in the world, and through that, we assisted 12million people across over 47 countries Currently we are responding to 21 emergency responses and have so far assisted nearly 9million people in 33 countries.
• #8: Of the 21 emergency responses, EIGHT are global, large-scale responses (affected over 1 million people or 50% population) and THREE are large-scale, but being handled by the National Office responses. Of these, SEVEN are in Africa. Uganda South Sudanese Refugee: Re-declared to a category 3 (8th May 2017) East Africa Hunger Crisis: Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia (3 March 2017) Hurricane Matthew: Haiti (6 Oct 2016) Lake Chad Basin: Niger, Chad (28 Sept 2016) South Sudan Complex Emergency (Re-declared 10 Feb 2016) Southern Africa Region: Angola; Lesotho; Malawi; Mozambique; South Africa; Swaziland; Zambia; and Zimbabwe Food Insecurity (El Nino) (28 Sept 2015) Central African Republic, (Mar 2014) Syria Crisis Response: Multi-country response (re-declared 8 March 2017) Syria & Turkey: Category 3, Global Response Jordan: Category 3, Global Response Iraq: Category 3, Global Response Lebanon: Category 3, NO Response  National Office Response NEW India Drought: Declared 29th May 2017 Nepal Earthquake: Re-declared from Global to NO response 1 Oct 2016 Burundi Malaria Outbreak: Declared 5 August 2016
• #11: The VSAT technology has really changed over time. Now, with advancement in technology, we have dishes that are 60 cm in diameter: very portable, very cheap, and very easy to set up. HTC – High Throughput Capacity HFB – High Focus Beam
• #12: Last year, WV DM Unit embarked on an exercise of searching for QDKs. Connectivity in emergency responses is one of our biggest challenges. In our fact-finding, we came across two sets of VSAT quick deployment kits: The C-Band one – the Emergency.lu balloon that costs around US$75,000 The Ku/Ka Band ones – whose costs range from US$13,000 to US$35,000. I was fortunate to have gotten a demo from the EMC Team in Nairobi of their quick deployment kit, and I appreciated it. As is expected of any organization that follows due process, we had to check what is available in the market-place that is affordable, portable (especially for a mosquito-weight like me), can easily be checked through customs, can be set up in less than 1 hour even by a non-techie person, and works reliably. We focused on these three. The Inmarsat’s Global Xpress is very new in the market, utilizing their new I-5 satellites. There is an auto-tuning option, and the bandwidth is great. We requested for a demo of it, and we would be very happy to invite others once the date and venue of the demo is confirmed.
• #13: I would also want to briefly talk about two innovative systems:O3b Networks; 4G/LTE Rapid Deploy Kit. I believe we have heard of them. O3B Networks cover emerging and insufficiently connected markets in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, with a collective population of over 3 billion people, providing them with low-latency, fibre-speed (1.2Gbps) through satellite. This is achieved through the use of MEO (Medium Earth Orbiting) satellites. They have a constellation of 12 satellites that orbit at 8,062 km above sea level. It is noteworthy that the technology requires use if two VSAT terminals.
• #15: Ensuring there is reliable connectivity within 72 hours of an emergency declaration is one of demands on ICT in Emergencies. This will ensure that the responders to have timely access to information, and can reliably send out proposals, situational reports, and stories (videos, at times live-streaming). It saves lives. But at times we get equipment that ends up being kept in a junk-yard somewhere. Or we incur ‘ghost costs’ – cost of satellite phone subscriptions that the people who came after us knew not about! I recently got informed of some satellite phone accounts that an office in Asia was paying, for a response that happened in 2008! What a waste of resources!
• #16: So we now have the equipment that was ‘dumped’ on us by the rapid response team. What do we do: Do we return them, and if so, who will bear the cost of shipping them back? Do we donate them, or do we dispose of them? For me, key is to act, not just complain (or hide them in that store, where no-one can see them). But even before any emergency response, there are things that should be in place (and/or thought through): It is imperative that any organization has ICT standards that are adhered to. These standards should incorporate emergency response context. It is also important to begin with the end in mind. As you decide on the equipment to deploy, think long-term: how will these equipment be re-deployed within the local office? Or if you do not foresee the equipment being reused in the local office, could they be reused elsewhere (or could you get a buyer or a donor for them locally). The government offices do at times need such equipment, for as long as they are able to support them. Also, think local when purchasing. You are sure that if goods can be bought locally, it is most likely that they can be supported and/or re-deployed locally. It also promotes the local economy. An area we in ICT sometimes struggle with: tracking ICT equipment. This should include satellite phones (and their SIM Card numbers), not just laptops and servers. Yes, some remote-inventorying software do exist, like SpiceWorks among others. These are some things we can do at our level, with the support of our senior leadership.
• #17: Let us now think broadly – beyond our offices: Would loaning/leasing be something viable and/or worth considering? I recall during the Nepal Earthquake Response, We were loaned by Iridium (through NetHope) some Iridium satellite phones. These were loaned to us for free, and were to be returned to NetHope after a given time-period. The concept of shared services is, I believe at the core of what ETC (Emergency Telecommunications Cluster), together with NetHope, is doing. But it has primarily been at equipment/service level, not at staffing level. I think it would be great if we collaborated more. Or altogether formed a global ICT-for-NGOs organization that would offer ICT services to NGOs during emergency responses. Something that actually brings me to a ‘disruptive’ concept of service-platform for humanitarian work (the AirBnB or Uber of humanitarian work). That is something for another day… Then there is the option of entering into service charters with service providers. Already ETC is working on two charters for MNOs (through GSMA – already active) and for Satellite Communications services (still WIP) As an extension of these Crisis Connectivity Charters, there is also the option of getting Service-in-kind from tech companies. We already have Ericsson Response offering services to ETC during emergencies, and we have heard of the partnership between NetHope and the tech-companies. I believe there is quite some scope on this, but some further thinking might need to be done to scale it.