Humanitarian digital identity tech support program and first partner announced by Yoti

A new tech support program has been launched by Yoti to help humanitarian organizations and humanitarian-focussed startups apply technology to make an impact in their chosen areas, according to a company blog post.

The post by Yoti Head of Social Purpose Ken Banks describes the new Humanitarian Tech Support Programme as one element in the business’ 2020 Social Purpose Strategy, and says it will commit to working with partners to fill in skills gaps and help them understand the human, technical and environmental context they must operate within. The goal is to improve the design, testing, and deployment of technical solutions.

Noting that The New Humanitarian lists urban displacement, conflict, antibiotic resistance to infectious disease, gang violence, extremism, and climate change as challenges for the developing world and the entire planet, Banks suggests the power of technology will be necessary to make a dent in these problems. The failures to successfully make use of that technology in the sector is also noted, and explained as a function of the extreme challenges faced and relative lack of all-around expertise possessed by humanitarian organizations and startups.

The first partner Yoti will work with is Lanterne, which is described in the post as a for-profit social impact business with initiatives such as using machine learning and big data to look for patterns in conflict events, extract information from news and social media in near real-time to gain insight into conflicts, and building a community of users to share incident reports to help keep each other safe.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be a Programme Partner with Yoti. Humanitarian and development problems are extremely complex, and we believe it’s always best to tackle them through thoughtful collaboration. We’re immensely excited to have the opportunity to work with Ken and Yoti, and we have no doubt Yoti’s expertise, networks, and experience in innovation will be invaluable to us as we pursue our mission,” comments Lanterne Co-founder Alex Barnes.

Yoti plans to add up to three more organizations to the Programme that are building or managing online communities in which trust is key, delivering a service that requires identity verification, building a humanitarian tool or service using highly sensitive information, or that have other trust or digital identity challenges. Those selected will receive advice and support, as well as access to Yoti technology.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  humanitarian  |  Identification for Development (ID4D)  |  technology  |  Yoti