Disaster & Humanitarian Response

ICT Leadership

Around the world, people use Microsoft technology every day to connect to the things that are important to them and to stay in touch during difficult times. Microsoft understands that many of the products that businesses and consumers use to be more mobile and productive can also help government, inter-government, and nongovernmental organizations meet the challenges of providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Microsoft technologies promote efficient communication and decision-making in the prevention, preparation, response, and recovery phases of a disaster. These technologies can:

• Provide awareness of the situation and a common operational picture.
• Make communication and collaboration easier and more efficient.
• Improve decision-making.
• Allow for data-sharing among response organizations without compromising security.
• Link varying types of information, including mapping and video, in a single system.
• Provide well-known tools to help achieve rapid productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Microsoft Citizen Safety Architecture

Microsoft Citizen Safety Architecture (CSA) is a suite of Microsoft and Partner software and services that improve multi-agency operational effectiveness through collaboration and information-sharing. CSA enables governments to reduce costs and more effectively detect and prevent threats to citizen safety, and to prepare for, and respond to, critical incidents.

Microsoft Vine

Microsoft Vine is a new consumer service that helps people stay in touch, informed, and involved when it matters most. It uses familiar technologies such as text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking applications. Vine is built for everyday use, but can also connect families and communities in times of disaster.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is a suite of server capabilities that enable people to design customized, Web-based, and security-enhanced interfaces to share critical data without revealing sensitive information. The SharePoint platform helps improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared processes, and making it easier to share information. Organizations such as NetHope are deploying SharePoint portals to improve collaboration and to share information.

Bing Maps

Bing Maps is a mapping services platform that enables first responders to visualize complex geospatial information to provide the necessary situational awareness. It provides mapping and imagery so that people can visualize incident and unit locations. Its collaborative and dynamic mapping feature enables responders to integrate weather forecasting data, assess affected areas in real time, track shipments, and pinpoint critical infrastructure.

Microsoft Office Groove

Microsoft Office Groove enables flexible peer-to-peer collaboration, providing organizations and others with access to make it easier to share information. A team of Microsoft employees used Office Groove to enable nongovernmental organizations and doctors to deliver medical care to remote areas of Afghanistan. Without infrastructure for power or mobile phone connectivity, the team piloted a program for the use of Office Groove and other technologies to help reduce the coordination time among doctors from weeks down to just two days.

Microsoft .NET Framework

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a common environment for building, deploying, and running Web services and Web applications—a set of software technologies that makes it easy to connect information, people, systems, and devices. Developers can assemble applications from new and existing code, regardless of platform, language, or object model. The .NET Framework enables developers to build applications of many types, including Web, server, smart client, console, and database.

Global Partnerships

Microsoft has a long history of working with leading humanitarian response organizations and information and communications technology (ICT) partners to develop joint solutions. We have the perseverance to continue collaborating to solve some of the toughest disaster management challenges. With our extensive reach of partnerships, international operations, and social media properties, Microsoft brings technology resources and expertise to help provide a comprehensive set of disaster management solutions.

NetHope

NetHope is a consortium of many of the world’s leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), each with technology capabilities and program operations around the world. NetHope is dedicated to finding and implementing the best use of technological resources available to improve NGO operations and efficiency. NetHope and its member agencies work together as a highly collaborative team—sharing information and communications technology (ICT) knowledge, solving common problems, creating and fostering industry relationships to support public benefit work, and educating consortium members and the broader community of NGOs.

Since 2005, Microsoft has donated more than $44 million to NetHope and its member agencies to support nonprofit technological innovation and programs around humanitarian assistance and development.

• NetHope
• Emergency Capacity Building Project

American Red Cross

In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, Microsoft worked with the American Red Cross to create the Web site, Katrinasafe.org, now known as Safe and Well. This Web-based tool reunites families and communities that have been affected by disasters. To date, more than 300,000 Katrina evacuees have registered. It has since been used to help victims of the 2005 Pakistan-India earthquake and the 2008 Gulf Coast hurricanes.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Microsoft’s partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began in 1999 in response to the increasing stream of refugees out of Kosovo. Microsoft mobilized 100 employee volunteers and developed a mobile registration kit that used technology to help 500,000 Kosovo refugees reestablish their identities. This helped reunite families, prove citizenship and property ownership, and provide access to healthcare and other services. Since then, Microsoft volunteers have improved the registration kits for use by UNHCR in many other parts of the world.

Microsoft employee volunteers have worked with the UNHCR team in Uganda, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Rwanda, Guinea, Sudan, and Tanzania. Microsoft also established community technology centers in Kenya and Russia. These centers provide refugees with the opportunity to learn technology skills that can help them succeed as they establish their homes in new countries and regions.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

When a cyclone and extensive flooding devastated much of Myanmar in May 2008, Microsoft and 19 of its technology partners rallied to help the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) create a collaboration Web site for aid workers in the region. Built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Virtual Earth (now Bing Maps) technologies, the Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) Myanmar portal provided response agencies with a single source of reliable information and tools to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The HIC Myanmar portal featured regularly updated news reports and announcements, links to the most recently uploaded documents, and a calendar of upcoming events. It also provided access to an interactive map center, press materials, weather updates, and collaboration workspaces. The site's interactive mapping features are built on the Microsoft Bing Maps platform and Visual Fusion Suite software from IDV Solutions. Users can view satellite maps of the disaster area, layer weather charts, keep track of relief service locations and supply distributions on the map, and integrate data from elsewhere on the portal or the Internet.

• United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Technology Industry Partners

In addition, Microsoft works with a myriad of technology industry partners to deliver joint innovation solutions in the area of public safety and disaster response.

• Microsoft Citizen Safety Architecture

Community Involvement

Many disaster response organizations count on volunteers and donations to achieve their mission. Microsoft promotes employee involvement with volunteering and giving programs and helps build public awareness for support in times of need.

2008 US Gulf Coast Hurricanes

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, Microsoft used MSN.com and Microsoft.com to raise public awareness and support for nonprofit organizations involved in the relief efforts. Many local Microsoft employees responded by volunteering their time and expertise at Internet access stations set up to help families access FEMA applications and register with the Red Cross “Safe and Well” site. At satellite relief locations throughout the area, Microsoft employees helped members of their community by serving meals for the Salvation Army. Employees throughout the U.S. also made donations to relief organizations, which were matched by Microsoft.

2008 China Earthquake

Within hours of the May 2008 earthquake in the Chan’s Sichuan Province, Microsoft began working on relief and recovery efforts. The company and its employees collectively donated US$1.4 million over two years to help rebuild schools and restore education programs in affected communities. When the outpouring of online donations to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation caused its Web site to crash, engineers from the Microsoft China Technology Center helped launch a new site that could process more than 10,000 transactions per day. Microsoft employees in the region also helped provide technical assistance to affected customers and partners, restore local telecommunications service, and post online news reports from areas hit by the quake.

2005 Hurricane Katrina

Following the devastating impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Microsoft and its employees committed more than US$11 million in cash contributions and technology to aid in the humanitarian relief efforts.

• More than US$1.7 million was raised by employees, and those donations were matched by Microsoft. Those funds went to national nonprofits, community organizations, and faith-based groups.
• Immediately following the hurricane and flooding, Microsoft provided a corporate donation of US$1 million for relief efforts. This included donations of US$500,000 to the American Red Cross; US$350,000 to Governor’s Funds in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama; and US$200,000 to America’s Second Harvest.

Several months after the initial crisis, Microsoft made additional investments of US$1 million to organizations involved in rebuilding the region and assisting displaced families.

Disaster Response in Action

Related Links

• Microsoft Crisis Management Solutions for Government
• Using the 2007 Microsoft Office System for Disaster Planning and Response
• Improving Emergency Management Collaboration for Government Agencies Using Microsoft Office