OPINION | We need to prioritise digital products across humanitarian operations. Here’s why.

Our team lead, Maarten van der Veen, discusses the importance of digital products in humanitarian work, emphasizing their significance for more effective, local humanitarian operations. 

This World Red Cross Red Crescent Day, we reaffirm our ambition to create digital products that support all National Societies around the world. To ensure these products will be used to have an impact, National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies need to go through their own digital transformation. When National Societies start their digital transformation journey, many are investing in their own digital products to support operations. The cost of creating and maintaining digital products can be high. Therefore, as a network, we should work together to develop and maintain these digital products. 

Driving localization of aid through digital transformation 

National Societies need to enhance their use of data and digital technology to speed up and improve their humanitarian operations. This requires assessing current capacities, setting future goals, and making gradual parallel improvements on three key domains: people, process and technology. By doing so, this will contribute to them becoming strong and independent local actors. 

Working together to drive impact through digital  

Creating multiple digital products for the same use across National Societies can lead to unnecessary duplication, wasted resources, and inconsistent ways of working. Imagine if every National Society had to create its own messaging app for emergencies. The cost, time, and expertise needed would be too much. Instead, using a shared product allows people everywhere to access support from the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in a consistent, reliable way. Similarly, by sharing expertise and resources, we can create better digital solutions more efficiently and cost-effectively, helping more people. Sharing the cost of digital products among all National Societies could provide access to better digital products at a lower cost, compared to each National Society developing them individually. Therefore, it’s important for National Societies to consider this collaborative approach. 

Achieving a unified approach in global digital product delivery

Delivering a digital product to other National Societies requires long-term commitment, strategic planning, marketing, support and a sustainable cost-recovery strategy. For this to materialize, there are several steps that need to be taken:

• Do user research and validation to make sure digital products meet the varied needs of National Societies and end-users in different contexts, while being easy to use. 

• Coordinate well on global digital products offered by the network to avoid repetition, to make sure digital product plans and features complement each other and work well together.  

• Use common data standards across digital products to make it easier for National Societies to report and to create a global view of our combined humanitarian impact. 

• Agree on cost-recovery approaches between National Societies to share investment risk and ensure long term sustainability of the global product offerings. 

• Promote global digital products by the FICR and all National Societies to ensure equal access to digital products for all members, support use and help create a sustainable business case for each product. 

In conclusion, while strengthening each National Society is important, a unified approach towards digital transformation can bring big benefits. It’s essential for National Societies to work together to fully benefit from digital technology, not just to save time and money, but to help people faster, support communities better, and ultimately save more lives. By working together, we can make sure no community is forgotten in the digital future of humanitarian response. 

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