Signpost in the Press
This year’s World Humanitarian Day theme is “No Matter What” – a recognition that the humanitarian community strives to reach people in crisis with lifesaving assistance, regardless of the dangers or difficulties in making that happen. That tenacious spirit is both fitting and necessary this year.
“The International Rescue Committee is thrilled that the global Signpost project has been awarded the 'Connect' award at the SDG Action Awards today in Rome, Italy, in recognition of its work supporting and empowering millions of people on the move with timely, accurate and often life-saving information.”
Winner 2023 | Connect | Signpost | UN SDG Action Awards
In the realm of development and humanitarian work, an often-overlooked need is reliable and timely information that centers the needs of the affected community, rather than the responding agency. Putting the power of information into the hands of communities creates pathways for self-determination and agency. The Signpost Project empowers communities by giving them control over the information they need to solve problems and overcome challenges.
Tech For Refugees, the global refugee initiative launched in 2022 by Julia and Yuri Milner in cooperation with major technology partners, and funded by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, is making a multi-year commitment to support the humanitarian efforts of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
As humanitarian crises evolve and expand across Latin America, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) presented an analysis of information search trends in relation to the needs of Venezuelans in Colombia, people in and from northern Central America and along the migration corridors in Mexico.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), with support from the European Union, and in partnership with the local organization Alas de Colibrí, launched InfoPa’lante Ecuador, an online orientation service to help displaced Venezuelans in the country access reliable information and identify organizations that provide critical services.
Zendesk’s partnership with Signpost helps the humanitarian organization grow and scale as it supports people in crisis by providing access to critical information… Using a suite of software components, including partnerships with Google, Facebook, Twilio, Cisco, and Zendesk, a team of local, frontline responders and support personnel use journalistic and humanitarian expertise to ensure the right information products are created and adapted to the realities of the refugees they seek to support.
Knowledge is power—and vital for safety | Zendesk Blog
Critical information for those impacted by the war in Ukraine | The Keyword blog.google
Google.org is providing a $1.5 million grant to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), along with a team of Google.org Fellows, to expand access to critical information for those impacted by the war in Ukraine. The money and expertise will help the IRC support unitedforukraine.org, an informative website and civil society effort that helps displaced people to find housing, legal aid and psychological support.
A new $1.5M grant by Google.org and a Google.org Fellowship team will help the IRC support United for Ukraine, an information portal and civil society effort, that helps displaced people find access to critical services. United for Ukraine will be part of the IRC’s Signpost Project, a global humanitarian technology program operating in 15 countries that helps refugees find resources to meet their urgent needs
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice, announced the launch of the ImportaMi platform, a new resource hub to provide information to unaccompanied children navigating life in the United States. ImportaMi will enable unaccompanied children to connect directly to a community liaison who can help them find an attorney and long-term assistance.
The Signpost initiative, Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Digital Community Hubs (DCH), and Internews’ Humanitarian Information Dashboard (HID) all work to debunk myths, identify and dispel misinformation or disinformation, and create reliable informational content for local dissemination. These truth-seeking groups leverage technology to transform communication in refugee communities. Read more here on Cisco’s blog.
After the United States and Guatemala governments announced the inauguration of a reception center for people who have been expelled from the U.S., the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reminds the global community that efforts should be aimed at comprehensively addressing the root causes of migration in the region.
Data collected during the first months of operation of InfoDigna—a digital platform supported by the International Rescue Committee (IRC)—revealed people’s most relevant demands of information and services while waiting for migration processes along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Refugee.Info is a two-way, multi-disciplinary communication platform in Italy that is used to understand the issues users are facing and to connect them with available services. A key population that uses the platform are refugees and asylum seekers who are facing a myriad of challenges, including protection issues such as forced eviction in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent data of the IRC’s CuéntaNos shows an increase in the number of people searching information on identification and migration processes; employment; and women’s services. Worsening living conditions across Northern Central America are contributing to an increase in migration flows from the region, warns the International Rescue Committee.
Refugee.Info is a two-way communication platform that IRC implements in collaboration with Mercy Corps and Internews in Italy to support the refugee population there. It is intended to empower refugees to make decisions and navigate the Italian system, local policies, social services (such as medical support, housing, jobs), and their rights as refugees within Italy. (Begins on page 33).
This review paper features Signpost’s methods of two-way communication with communities (beginning on p. 80). Focuses on multiple comparative advantages of responsive information services like Signpost - these advantages are attributed to building trust in response efforts and community participation, community ownership. Read the review here on eore.org.
The International Rescue Committee is a global humanitarian agency that helps refugees and displaced people reach safety and build a better life. To provide refugees with information on legal aid, healthcare, and housing, the organization built a conversational helpline with Twilio Flex and WhatsApp.
Global Force Migration: The Political Crisis of Our Time, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
“According to an International Rescue Committee (IRC) study, these information communication technology platforms are particularly well-suited for forced migrants living in urban contexts with diverse populations, geographically dispersed populations, dynamic movement among populations, and a large number of service providers. IRC and its partners have launched a myriad of global and regional platforms to provide information to forced migrants, including Service.Info, Refugee.Info, which was expanded into Signpost, and CuentaNos.org.” (page 113)
“While we’re aiming to solve some problems in the here and now, this pandemic will be with us for a long time to come,” says Heller. “We need to be making decisions that consider not just today’s challenges, but also how we’re going to be working a year from now and what people are going to need".”
“Our staff on the ground in more than 40 countries are scaling up Signpost, a game-changing online engagement platform that can be accessed from mobile phones. Within a week of its launch, 80,000 people in Europe logged on and accessed information specifically about COVID-19.”
How to fight the coronavirus: lessons from Ebola, Rescue.org
“In Italy, a hundred thousand people have used our online portal Signpost to get reliable information, because that really matters.”
“We’ve also found that through this online platform we’ve created, Signpost—in El Salvador, it's called CuéntaNos—and so we can use online platforms, as well [to fight disinformation].”
The Danger of COVID-19 for Refugees, The New Yorker
“The Signpost project includes building on our impressively large Facebook presence with refugees across Europe, which allows us to reach vulnerable populations with posts, videos and podcasts. A large team of moderators are constantly answering questions, engaging communities, and advising people on how to access services and stay safe.”
Sharing Information, Not Germs, Mercy Corps Medium
“In an unprecedented level of engagement, the posts reached more than 100,000 people in 3 weeks. More than 18,000 people read the post and nearly 7,000 people used the Facebook post to navigate to the full blog article (which has been viewed 9,000 times in 3 weeks).”
How to help migrants make the best decisions at the worst times, The New Humanitarian
“Information is power, and humanitarians need to prioritise approaches that work in today’s world so that all people fleeing crisis and conflict have the information they need to empower them to be safe, access vital services, and rebuild their lives.”
Modernize your crisis hotline with Twilio Flex, Twilio Blog
“After a needs assessment, the IRC has decided to enable WhatsApp — overwhelmingly the most popular communications medium in the country — as the main channel to connect with a moderator via Flex. This allows the organization to meet people where they are and drastically lowers the barrier for crisis-affected people to access the help they need.”
Signpost, a partnership between the global humanitarian organizations Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee, has reached 1 million refugees, asylum seekers and crisis-affected communities with critical information across seven countries and three continents.
“We’re empowering people to make choices in their lives.”
One year before the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans in the United States, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has launched its new website: cuentanos.org.
Building on the success and necessity of the informational site Refugee.Info, International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps, alongside global partner PeaceGeeks and with support from Google, Cisco, Microsoft and TripAdvisor, announced today the expansion of the Europe-based Refugee.Info to Italy, and the launch of new sites in Jordan and El Salvador.
“I knew how our refugee clients felt, and could help them by providing answers.”
“Watch to learn more about how Google, the International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps are partnering to provide more than 800,000 refugees access to the Internet, vital information and educational resources.