MNOs work with humanitarians to deliver services for affected populations

GSMA released a new report that explains how aid agencies and private sector organisations can collaborate to deliver digital services in humanitarian crises. The report looks at information gathered from multiple mobile network operators (MNOs) operating in the humanitarian sphere for several years with special focus on four MNOs that have experience supporting the delivery of aid in unique crisis contexts on three continents, namely Jawwal/PalTel Group (Palestine), JazzCash (Pakistan), Vodacom (Mozambique), and ZainCash (Iraq). For humanitarian organisations, this points out when services should be driven by revenue or commercial decision- making and the importance of establishing shared value. Additionally, the report calls upon humanitarian organisations to revisit the short timelines of donor funding cycles and consider long-term, holistic timelines since it takes MNOs several years to make a return on the investment in humanitarian related projects.