TRAC FM wins World Humanitarian Innovation Award

The contest for initiatives that use an innovative approach to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian response is part of the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) that will be organized in Istanbul in 2016.

An informed response

Crises like the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa have shown once again that relief efforts are not just about getting resources in the right place at the right time: understanding and shaping the beliefs of people can be just as big a factor. And although we won’t be developing a vaccine, TRAC FM can help relief workers to mount a better and more effective response.

TRAC FM won the award for a proposal to turn our software platform into a multi-purpose tool that can serve as an early warning system, inform the affected population, and provide reliable data to relief workers

The TRAC FM solution reaches people through the most familiar and trusted formats of established radio talk-shows. The use of simple phones also means the platform can be used in areas or countries with a low internet penetration and gather responses from groups that are traditionally hard to reach. 

World Humanitarian Summit

The WHS itself is an initiative of UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-Moon. The summit should result in better ways to tackle humanitarian needs and set a new agenda for global action. It’s focus will be humanitarian effectiveness, reducing vulnerability and managing risk, transformation through innovation, and serving the needs of people in conflict.

Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, mentioned TRAC FM in her speech in December 2014:

Time: [15:24] "To be effective we must listen to people and work with them to find sustainable solutions. Humanitarian organizations are looking at different ways in which we can engage with people, individually and collectively. Using for example, TRAC FM to conduct country-wide citizen centred interactive radio polls."