Microsoft today announced it is donating $41 million in software and cash to NetHope and the Interagency Working Group on Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB).
This grant is intended to enable efficient and rapid communication among nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) during times of crisis, when speed, collaboration and efficiency can make a true difference in people's lives.
Pamela Passman, vice president of Global Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, said,
"Microsoft is partnering with these NGOs to drive further adoption of technology that can speed information when it is most critical. We at Microsoft believe it is important to help improve humanitarian efforts through financial donations, technical resources and the volunteer efforts of our employees worldwide. This grant is directed at improving collaboration among agencies, which is one of the most vital issues our NGO partners are trying to solve."
NetHope is a membership organisation composed of the chief information officers and chief technology officers of 17 global NGOs working in international development. The Interagency Working Group on Emergency Capacity Building Project is composed of seven of the most active agencies in this space, including CARE, Mercy Corps and Save the Children. Their focus is to improve collaboration and capacity in disaster response, including improved use of information and communications technology to assist in their work.
Molly Tschang, executive director of NetHope, said,
"Microsoft has played a catalytic role in fostering strong alliances among leading international NGOs, enabling them to unleash the power of technology to solve common problems cooperatively. This collaborative model creates leverage for technology to dramatically improve the efficiency, speed and information sharing by those who need it most during emergencies."
NetHope's membership will use Microsoft's donations to aid with major systems upgrades, moving from IT infrastructure that often has been cobbled together over time and across a number of global offices to a more unified platform using Microsoft Windows XP and the Microsoft Office system.
Microsoft knows from past experience that technology can make a difference in disaster response. During the Kosovo crisis, the company worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to create the Refugee Field Kit to provide displaced people with new, official identity cards and an easier method for finding family members. This use of technology essentially changed how the UNHCR had dealt with refugees for 50 years - with paper-and-pencil lists of people. Last year, Catholic Relief Services and Microsoft developed a portal solution to accelerate global relief response to the Southeast Asian earthquake and tsunami.
More recently, the day Hurricane Katrina hit the southern US, a Microsoft database architect in Birmingham, Alabama, knew there would be a need for people separated from their families to let loved ones know they were safe. As a result, Microsoft engineers worked virtually nonstop for four days to develop http://katrinasafe.org, an online tool used by Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to help evacuees find family members separated by the crisis.
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