Humanitarian charity Save the Children and Vodafone Foundation, the philanthropic arm of multinational telecommunications company Vodafone, have formed a new global humanitarian partnership.
Announced recently at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), it brings together the partners’ humanitarian expertise, technology and global reach to better support children and communities before, during and after emergencies.
The partnership will strengthen emergency preparedness and humanitarian response and expand access to Vodafone Foundation’s technology and connectivity solutions in some of the world’s most challenging environments.
A key element of the partnership is Vodafone Foundation’s donation of six Instant Network kits — portable communications systems that can rapidly restore connectivity when conventional networks are disrupted by disasters or conflict.
Pre-positioned at humanitarian hubs around the world and deployed by Save the Children during emergencies, the kits will help response teams coordinate operations, assess needs and deliver life-saving assistance more quickly. Vodafone Foundation will provide the technology, training and technical support for the kits, while Save the Children will oversee secure routine testing and deployment.
Instant Network has already been used by Save the Children during emergency responses, including in Mozambique, where the technology helped improve operational coordination.
Vodafone Foundation will also support Save the Children’s Emergency Fund, enabling rapid response when crises occur and investment in action before disaster strikes, and will join Save the Children’s Humanitarian Network, a community of partners committed to faster, more effective humanitarian action for children.
In addition, the partnership will explore how Vodafone Foundation’s TerraGuard software (a disaster risk monitoring platform) and Vodacom’s M-Pesa cash-transfer payments could strengthen humanitarian response. Integrating these technologies into Save the Children’s systems, Vodafone says, could help teams anticipate risks and enable assistance to reach families faster and more efficiently.
As the two groups point out, their collaboration was announced as recent climate-linked emergencies around the world – including flash floods in Nepal, heatwaves and forest fires globally – as well as ongoing conflict and displacement, continue to put millions of children at risk.
The partnership builds on a longstanding relationship between Save the Children and Vodafone Foundation, including collaboration on Skills Upload Junior, part of Vodafone Foundation’s wider work supporting young people’s digital wellbeing, skills and resilience. The new global partnership extends this relationship into humanitarian preparedness and response.