The Field, Its Needs and New Technologies

Abstract

There are currently over 65 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide. Over half of refugees are under the age of 18. In crisis situations, children and young people are the most vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. To strengthen our emergency preparedness and response, SOS Children’s Villages is participating in two initiatives relating to new technologies. First, SOS Children’s Villages is partnering with Allianz and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for a study on how satellite technology and other space infrastructure can support our work. In addition, SOS Children’s Villages is partnering with the Department of Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg to pilot vulnerability studies, which, in combination with local knowledge of an area, could support SOS Children’s Villages in preparing for crisis situations as well as improving reactiveness. While these partnerships take different approaches, both can be used as a basis for strategies in building NGO programmes.