UN High Commissioner for Refugees partners with Skype

Anthony Caruana
Tuesday, 07 December 2010 08:37

Your IT - Mobility

Skype has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to deliver humanitarian workers in the most remote parts of the world a new and low-cost way to communicate with colleagues, friends, and families over low-bandwidth networks.

Skype has developed a bespoke, low-bandwidth version of its software, for deployment across 120 hardship locations served by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff members around the world. Established in 1951, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) provides and coordinates international relief for refugees and displaced people, offering them protection and assistance at every stage of their ordeal. For this work, the UNHCR received Nobel Peace Prizes in 1951 and 1981. 

Aid workers are often separated from their families for months at a time, sometimes with very little notice, and have limited opportunities for communication.  As all UNHCR employees have to pay for personal calls the UNHCR-version of Skype will provide both free and low-cost voice and video calls over the Internet even when accessed through low bandwidth networks.

The new software has been tested successfully in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan and is now available to 1,010 staff stationed in remote locations in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Chad, Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Uganda. By the end of 2010, Skype and UNHCR plan for that to extend the service to more than 2,072 members of staff across 60 UNHCR locations including Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.  The aim is for Skype to be in at least 80 per cent of UNHCR hardship locations and available to more than 3,000 staff members by the end of 2011.

Skype and UNHCR are also exploring the development of a communications solution that will benefit refugees more directly. Using the knowledge and experience from the deployment of Skype to UNHCR staff, the solution will aim to allow refugees to reach family and friends across borders and will also be used to facilitate protection operations, including repatriation, resettlement and family reunification.

"Skype has removed, at a very practical level, some of the most challenging barriers to communications that we experience in these locations', said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  'This will benefit not only UNHCR staff and their families at home but, potentially, the tens of millions of refugees and other displaced people in the world today. For us, helping the world's displaced is not just about delivering the basics of food and shelter but ensuring they are able to access all the benefits of modernity, including the ability to communicate regularly with friends and family. Our partnership with a technological innovator like Skype significantly advances our aspirations in this regard".

Tony Bates, Skype's CEO says that Skype is 'a company dedicated to using our software to enable the world's conversations and effect social change. Our partnership with UNHCR delivers on this mission in a most extraordinary way. We are excited by the future possibilities of this partnership.'

Understanding the need to secure financial resources for refugees and to further support this partnership, Skype is contributing financially to UNHCR and will begin a campaign to increase public awareness of UNHCR operations and help raise additional funds. The campaign will initially deliver messages via Skype to connected users encouraging them to make a difference to the lives of refugees beginning this holiday period.