Powerful inertia within the formal humanitarian sector have hindered efforts to put people at the center of aid over the past two decades. Powerful external trends are changing the ecosystem in which the formal humanitarian sector operates and will continue to change this ecosystem over the coming two decades. These external trends, together with emerging agents of change, will produce cracks in internal formal sector inertias and have the potential to catalyze greater influence by crisis-affected people over the assistance they receive.

Growing interconnectivity between people and communities globally, supported by the spread of technology, transnational communities, urbanization and the coming of age of today’s youth, will provide more choices for people to organize their own response, expand avenues for people to connect with formal and non-formal aid providers who are willing to meet their priorities (rather than relying on “who shows up”), and enable people with the tools and information to demand more from formal humanitarian sector actors.

How accessible emerging technological solutions actually are to crisis-affected people? How they can help to provide an unfiltered voice for engaging with services? Shadrock Roberts from Ushahidi and Paul Currion from Disberse discuss how accessible emerging technologies are to those affected by crisis in this hour long webinar.