Technologies in Humanitarian Settings: Community and Stakeholder Engagement

 There is strong support for community and stakeholder engagement in the development and implementation of digital technologies for use in humanitarian settings. Implementation, however, has been slow and there have not yet been sufficient sector-wide efforts to put community engagement into practice.

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is emerging as a common practice used by humanitarian organisations to engage communities and stakeholders around technological innovations with a growing understanding of what works as well as its limitations. HCD, however, can be opaque and extractive, reinforcing asymmetrical relationships among humanitarian actors.

Community and stakeholder engagement in the development and implementation of digital technologies entails careful planning and considerations for community dynamics and ensuring diverse perspectives. It also requires starting early and planning through the lifecycle of a technology including implementation phases.

Community and stakeholder engagement requires flexibility, iterations, and long-term programming, with the support of adequate financial and human resources, including facilitators trained and experienced in relevant concepts and approaches.

Leadership and institutional commitment are necessary to ensure that the digital transformation of humanitarian response does not fail broader efforts to give more power, funding and resources to humanitarian aid organisations and people based in crisis-affected countries.