“Never assume you know the communications eco-system – never think you know how people share information and which sources they trust better than community members themselves”. These were the words I found myself repeating in South Sudan, whilst supporting the recent...
At the World Humanitarian Summit in May, Google, Mercy Corps, UNHCR Innovation and ThoughtWorks were lucky enough to win an award for having one of the Top 5 Innovations of the World Humanitarian Summit for our collaborative project Translation Cards. While...
Technical Top Trumps Having never worked with an innovation unit -let alone been in an innovation ‘Lab’ before-it’s fair to say I had an ‘innovation complex’ when starting as the Emergency Lab Manager. For many, innovation is synonymous with the use of technology....
Urban refugees sometimes have a wealth of assistance at their fingertips, and yet no comprehensive, up-to-date and accurate online resource to help them access it. UNHCR Innovation tackled this issue with a challenge through UNHCR Ideas and came up with a winner: a...
Using CwC as a tool when fast-paced transit turns to frustration and uncertainty In January 2016, the Emergency Lab posted a blog about the different challenges humanitarian responders faced when trying to communicate with refugees and migrants making their way...
The Emergency Lab’s First Words: Translation Cards During our first scoping mission to fYR Macedonia late last year, the Emergency Lab identified the complexity of working in multiple languages as a key challenge. Ensuring that we share accurate information with...
