New and emerging technologies are having a profound impact on humanitarian aid efforts around the world. As natural disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies displace more people every year, aid organizations are harnessing innovative tools like artificial intelligence, drones, and mobile technology to respond more efficiently and effectively.
Speeding Up Disaster Response
The people at BBF Global Relief say that when disasters strike, getting help to those in need quickly is absolutely vital. Now, drones and AI are allowing disaster response charity workers to assess damage, locate survivors, and deliver supplies faster than ever before.
Drones with high-resolution cameras can survey disaster zones in minutes, scoping out impassable roads, collapsed buildings, and pockets of stranded people. This data then helps coordinate rescue missions and get aid where it’s most critically needed. Drones can also transport light supplies like food, water, and medicine to isolated areas.
Artificial intelligence further speeds up response time by analyzing drone footage and identifying promising locations to search for survivors. Machine learning models can also predict secondary disasters, like landslides after an earthquake, allowing aid teams to proactively evacuate people from newly high-risk zones.
Enhancing Aid Delivery
Innovations in mobile technology are also making the delivery of humanitarian aid more efficient and transparent. Apps and digital payment platforms are putting more power into the hands of displaced people to buy exactly what they need.
Pre-loaded debit cards allow aid agencies to directly transfer funds to people affected by the crisis. Families can then use these cards at local shops and vendors accessing food, clean water, medicine, and supplies on their own. This is more efficient than arranging physical item donations that are expensive to ship and not always what people want or need. Direct cash aid also stimulates local economies struggling in the aftermath of disasters.
Other apps manage aid distribution, tracking supplies to ensure they reach intended recipients without interference by third parties. This prevents aid theft, which is a chronic problem in humanitarian settings. With blockchain-enabled tracking, donors can verify when and where the families they aim to help ultimately receive things like food packages, tents, and blankets.
Empowering Smaller Charities
Major international aid agencies have the budgets to develop and deploy expensive new technologies like drones and mobile apps. But smaller disaster response charity organizations can access similar tools through online platforms and collaboration with tech partners. This levels the playing field, so community-focused groups can also take advantage of innovation.
Open-source drone software allows aid volunteers to easily pilot unmanned aerial vehicles using their smartphone GPS. Additional plug-ins can transform consumer drones into machines capable of computer vision, object recognition, and artificial intelligence typically requiring special equipment. Off-the-shelf drones are also more agile and replaceable than expensive proprietary models in disaster settings.
Developers are building mobile apps and data tools as free resources so charities worldwide can use the latest technology. Mapping software, translator apps, community feedback platforms and more are being packaged for humanitarian contexts through various organizations. Response innovation labs even host developers focused specifically on designing open-source tech for the aid community.
Conclusion
Drones, artificial intelligence, mobile platforms, and other emerging technologies are clearly making humanitarian work more efficient, cost-effective and accountable. And further advances are rapidly expanding capabilities while driving down barriers to access.
Soon virtually every aid team working disasters large and small will have real-time data guiding efforts as advanced algorithms crunch the latest field intel. Supplies will routinely arrive via autonomous drone just hours after families register for assistance through a few clicks on a mobile device. Supported by global collaboration between major international relief agencies and tiny volunteer-run groups, 21st century technology will allow responders to save more lives than ever amidst whatever crisis unfolds next.