Comprised of a mixture of business, governmental, non-governmental and philanthropic organisations, the Global Clinton Initiative was first established in 2005. Its mission is to solve some of the world's most pressing problems by turning "ideas into action."
Every year each CGI member makes a 'Commitment to Action' - a concrete plan to address a significant global issue. Last year, as part of its commitment entitled 'prepare, respond, recover', BT announced that it would fund the development of three Beneficiary Registration Kits (BRK), in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Each kit is equipped with 20 mobile devices, 10,000 plastic cards, one barcode printer, a back-end server and associated supplies, all designed to speed up the registration process during emergency relief efforts. The first BRK was deployed last November to the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan. Pete Garrett, disaster response manager at the British Red Cross, says it was "very effective" in helping relief efforts.
"During disasters, one of the first steps in the process of delivering relief support is the beneficiary registration, which so far is done manually", says Garrett. "This is a challenge because it's a slow process and when the beneficiary registrations forms are returned to the office, a dedicated team is required to manually upload all of the data relating to each of the families registered. The BRKs [mean] we can capture this data in an electronic format directly from the field and in real time. Three weeks after the BRKs had been deployed in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, more than 6,000 families had been registered through them, approximately 30,000 people."
Training in how to use the BRKs was provided by the IFRC. This was then disseminated to staff and volunteers across regional Philippine Red Cross branches, along with the creation of a manual and instructions on how to use the various applications. Due to the success of the scheme, additional kits have since been requested by the Philippines Red Cross to support all their branches.
The initial response to any disaster situation is hugely important. The immediate effects can range from the highly visible, such as injury, loss of life and property damage, to the less obvious, such as trauma or inadequate access to food, shelter and medical supplies. For the Red Cross, it is vital to mobilise all its resources in a rapid and coordinated way, but it is also important to avoid fostering dependency or destroying existing support mechanisms, including victim's own capacity for self-management.
"The primary aims of disaster response are rescue from immediate danger and stabilisation of the physical and emotional condition of survivors, as well as restoration of essential services such as water and power," says Garrett. "But disaster situations are highly fluid, evolve rapidly and require [the involvement] of the affected community itself. With a beneficiary card approach, the Red Cross puts more control into the hands of such people, which has been shown to improve the speed with which people recover."
Another thing which improves survival prospects is technology. In October the 21st edition of the World Disasters Report was launched, with a focus on technology and the future of humanitarian action. Amongst the areas of study contained within the report is communications technology, something Garrett describes as a "crucial" part of emergency response efforts.
"We need to be able to communicate with everyone involved in disaster response operations as we seek to gather information for use in analysing needs and decide the most appropriate course of action. Restoration of telecommunications systems is also important in order to employ the use of things like targeted SMS messaging for example. The support of companies like BT to provide equipment that can be used when normal telecommunications systems are down is critical."
To learn more about BT's commitment to use the power of communication to improve people's lives click here.
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