Solferino Academy
2021
Annual Report
Is Out!
A selection of the best events from the Red Cross Red Crescent Network focusing on innovation, foresight and transformation. A curated collection from the Solferino Academy superstars and delivered straight to you. You’ll never have to miss a cool event again.
The climate crisis is already having devastating effects on the health & humanitarian sector. On the frontline, the Red Cross Red Crescent network is anticipating future...
In episode 2 of the Humanitech Perspective we asked 🌏 Usman Iftikhar what problems he is looking to solve into the future? His answer Climate Migration, it was a powerful answer as it hits home to the realities that many people are facing around the globe already.
What if you had to flee your home? What if the future of your whole family depended on your decisions? What kind of choices would you make?
Join us on a virtual journey through the eyes of refugees on Wednesday November 24th 12:30-14:00 CET.
To be the best partner for the communities we support, we must anticipate, adapt and innovate. Shifting Sands is a growing network of fringe thinkers, futurists, innovators and leaders from around the globe.
On October 12-14, 2021, we came together as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and organised a global, virtual summit Planet:Red. The focus of this summit was on two of the greatest threats in contemporary times, the climate crisis and pandemics, and also on stepping up the Movement’s local action to drive global impact on the humanitarian dimensions of both.
In support of the Planet:Red Summit, Code:Red was a week-long, digital alternate reality game that took place across the internet and across the globe. During the game, around 780 players came together on an online forum, sharing over 1,100 messages in order to crack codes, solve puzzles and reveal the mystery at the heart of this innovative game.
The Data & Digital Week aimed to help National Societies (NS) connect with each other, and the wider network, and to learn from each other’s Digital Transformation efforts.
Being fit for the future. As we are entering the new year, we are excited to present some of their thinking on the areas that we need to focus on in 2022 if we are going to be able to handle the high levels of uncertainty.
Inspiring and mobilising volunteerism – is one of the transformations in the IFRC Strategy 2030, which we have together committed to achieve in the coming years. But what does this actually entail, and where do we begin?
Mrs Terez Curry, the President of the Bahamas Red Cross, shares her thoughts about the pivotal role of transformational leadership for the Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies around the world.
Code:Red was a week-long, digital alternate reality game taking place across the internet and across the globe. Code:Red players connected together in an online community to receive clues, discuss solutions and collaborate to complete the secret mission at the heart of the game.
Shamuk, leaving no one behind, is a project that seeks to reduce electronic waste by giving it a second life. Through repowering devices and delivering them to children in rural areas in Ecuador, it also reduces the digital gap and supports school reintegration. The initiative was designed and is led by volunteers from the Ecuadorian Red Cross, with funding and support from the IFRC Solferino Academy.
ake news have a well-established influence on vaccine uptake: people get scared or sceptical by reading stories on social media and then refuse to get vaccinated,’ says Jacopo Margutti, Data Scientist at 510. He continues by saying
Brothers across Borders is an interactive film based on the true stories of Syrian refugees in Turkey. You are Ismaël, a 21 years old Syrian refugee on a mission to find his brother Muhammed. Muhammed, as the oldest brother, went to Turkey to find a new and safer home for the family, but never returned to Syria. Nor has he contacted the family since he left Turkey. Now it’s all up to you. The future of Ismaël, Muhammed and the entire family is in your hands.
The Solferino Academy is an initiative of the IFRC and its member national societies that aims to help the Red Cross and Red Crescent network anticipate, understand and adapt to trends and emerging issues
AI and predictive analytics are increasingly being piloted to predict humanitarian crises and needs. However, crisis-affected communities are rarely involved in designing, testing or managing these tools. In this blog we introduce our research on ‘collective crisis intelligence’ (CCI), an emerging innovation approach that offers an alternative trajectory for AI development in the humanitarian sector.
Crises are by definition breaking points. Something that we thought would hold – peace, health, transit system, electric supply, a way of life, a society – shatters. While dealing with the crisis, our understanding of the vulnerability of our world increases, as does our understanding of how to prevent the catastrophe from happening again. The first-hand experience spurs innovation and recalibration that will, if built correctly, lead to increased resilience.
Any way you look at it 2020 was unprecedented, complex and challenging, and there is little indication that things will get any easier in the near future. Amongst the many difficulties we faced, however, a number of positives emerged alongside some key lessons for us going forward. At the Solferino Academy we spoke to 20 senior leaders across the IFRC and network of National Societies to ask their views on this. Here is some of what they told us:
Wow! Over the past 11 months, we’ve been digging into ‘data is a teamsport’ with special events (sprints), learning and training. All this collaboration and social learning has resulted in us creating an updated IFRC Data Playbook version 1. The original IFRC Data Playbook Beta was published in 2018 and continues to be in use around our network. With Strategy 2030 citing digital transformation as a priority, our team set out to update the Data Playbook and align it with the IFRC Digital transformation maturity model.
Imagine. It’s 2051. The town/place where you live has undergone significant changes over the past generation.
How does humanitarian response need to change to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century emerging across the globe? Four thought leaders coming from four different continents will convene in the same space to engage in a provocative and honest discussion
Are you interested? We’d love to hear from you!