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Tech touches every aspect of our lives, and humanitarian response is no exception.
Cash payment systems. Biometric ID. Generative AI. Data storage. Analytics.
Aid workers use new tech in their jobs every day.
Migrants and refugees use it to connect and find urgent information.
Aid groups are building chatbots and other tools to reach them and analyse their needs, and jumping headfirst into corporate partnerships with Big Tech and artificial intelligence firms.
That trend is even clearer today: Deep funding cuts are pushing aid groups to experiment with AI, in an attempt to do more with less money.
New tech can be a useful tool, maybe even transformative. But it can also have unintended consequences, especially in humanitarian crises.
So when is technology a force for good, and when are we just piling on the problems?
“What does it mean to use technology consistent with the humanitarian principles?” asks Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health. “Until we do that, we are going to be basically eroding the meaning of the core principles and the meaning of humanitarianism itself.”
In this episode, we invited three experts in technology and humanitarianism to unpack this thorny issue and suggest better ways forward.
Guests:
Mirca Madianou, professor in the School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, and author of “Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful”.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health
Rana F. Sweis, journalist and founder and managing director of WishBox Media
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Got a question or feedback? Email [email protected] or have your say on social media using the hashtag #RethinkingHumanitarianism.
