Information and communication technology (ICT) giant Ericsson has moved to contribute to humanitarian efforts in Africa and the Middle East as emerging economies in these regions face unprecedented and complex crises.

A new multifaceted partnership would see Ericsson combine its ICT scale and assets with the frontline response of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to improve disaster and crisis response using mobile technology.

IRC provides assistance to people facing conflict and disaster, through the provision of healthcare, infrastructure, education and economic support in 40 countries.

IRC committee adviser on public–private partnerships and innovation Allan Freedman noted that, like many industries and sectors today, the landscape of humanitarian response was changing.

“Globally, we are at a point of response greater than ever seen before,” he said, stating that partnerships were now a necessity to respond effectively to the humanitarian crises currently experienced.

On the sidelines of the Ericsson Business Innovation Forum, held in Sweden last week, he pointed out that ten-million people were displaced in Syria, while West Africa had been crippled by the outbreak of Ebola.

Further, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, besides others, were facing humanitarian crises that required a more effective humanitarian response.

“The world of humanitarian response is challenged like never before. The spread of Ebola, the Syrian refugee crisis and [the ongoing] crisis in South Sudan all present different challenges to those working with humanitarian response,” said Ericsson sustainability and corporate responsibility VP Elain Weidman-Grunewald.

Partnerships provided the reach and support to enhance response efforts, while the application of technology had the ability to transform the humanitarian response through data analytics, enhanced communications and mobile data collection and distribution.

The initial three-year tie-up between Ericsson and the IRC would start with a refugee reconnection programme in South Sudan, as well as with the mitigation of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa through the provision of communication capabilities.

Enhanced communications would assist IRC in shifting from paper-based documented research and information dissemination to digital capabilities promoting efficiencies and enabling bolstered effectiveness.

To respond more effectively to the chaos caused by the Ebola outbreak, hundreds of devices such as mobile phones, with the required apps, would be distributed to IRC’s frontline responders in the field to assist with field tracking, data capturing, data dissemination and communications, explained Weidman-Grunewald.

The apps were designed to support Ebola infection prevention efforts at primary healthcare facilities in Liberia and Sierra Leone, with IRC field teams able to accurately and efficiently capture and monitor data related to the facilities’ Ebola preparedness and response.

The partnership was also examining ways of distributing accurate information and creating awareness about potential health alerts and any crisis without infringing on private protection or creating unnecessary widespread panic based on inaccurate data.

Ericsson and IRC also aimed to provide technology and services and provide a platform for displaced families in Syria to reconnect.

“The combination of IRC’s operational expertise and Ericsson’s technology leadership has huge potential to help alleviate human suffering in some of the places hardest hit by conflict and disease,” said IRC president and CEO David Miliband.

“No one should have to do it alone,” Weidman-Grunewald said.