Delivering Critical Cybersecurity for Refugees

This article first appeared on Refugees Deeply

Refugees use libraryIraqi refugee Mustafa Altaie,23, writes an application on a library computer in Heilbronn, Germany. Marijan Murat/dpa

The refugee crisis in Europe has repeatedly highlighted the urgent need for communication technology for people on the move, from mapping their journeys to accessing services at their destinations.

Since leaders at the global I.T. and networking group Cisco saw the humanitarian situation on European borders escalating in 2015, they have tried to deploy the company’s products and people to improve connectivity for refugees in a scalable and sustainable way.

Working with nonprofit partners, the multinational company set up Wi-Fi hotspots in refugee camps across Greece, Slovenia and Serbia, and helped to develop first response centers in Germany that offer a real-time translation service. They have also deployed cloud security software to protect refugees from cyberthreats.

As part of our interview series with private sector leaders engaging in the refugee crisis, Refugees Deeply spoke to Erin Connor, Cisco’s portfolio manager for critical human needs, about the organization’s response to refugees’ needs.

Refugees Deeply: Could you describe a moment when you became convinced that the company had a role to play in addressing the refugee crisis?

Erin Connor: Cisco typically responds to natural disasters only, but the refugee situation became a humanitarian crisis of such proportions that, in October 2015, we chose to make an exception to our policy.

We started by expanding the scope of our annual hunger relief drive to include organizations responding to the refugee crisis, based on employee interest. We added over 40 NGOs to the campaign, and Cisco Foundation matched employee contributions dollar for dollar.

We subsequently awarded cash grants to nonprofit partners NetHope and Mercy Corps, and provided networking and communications equipment to the German Red Cross. In addition to these donations, Cisco took an active role in our area of expertise. We sent equipment and employees to Greece and Slovenia (and provided remote technical support and equipment for Serbia), to set up Wi-Fi hotspots at refugee camps in partnership with NetHope.

Refugees Deeply: How did you decide what would be the most useful and efficient role for the company to play?

Connor: We chose to pursue a multi-pronged approach to our response, leveraging our core competencies – our people, products, expertise and financial resources – to respond to the refugee crisis.

We have done this in a number of ways: by encouraging and matching the generosity of our employees to provide critical financial support to responding organizations; by awarding cash grants to strategic nonprofit partners to provide internet-based information and coordination services to refugees and NGOs on the ground, and by donating Cisco equipment to establish Wi-Fi hotspots and connectivity to refugees on the move and in camps. We have also provided time, expertise, and in-kind technical support through our Tactical Operations, Disaster Response Team volunteers and Central European team.

Refugees Deeply: What results have you seen from the company’s refugee programs to date, and what are your goals for the next year?

Connor: Cisco’s Tactical Operations (TacOps) engineers and Disaster Response Team volunteers have carried out 10 two-week deployments in partnership with the NGO NetHope to install Meraki-based Wi-Fi networks across Greece, Slovenia and Serbia.

A total of 75 sites (64 are currently active, as some have been decommissioned due to the moving population) have provided connectivity to over 600,000 unique user devices since November 2015. Using our cloud security software, we block an average of 2,000 cyberthreats per day.

Cisco also funded the prototype of the first two Refugee First Response Centers (RFRCs), which was a concept developed by the Cisco team in Hamburg and a range of ecosystem partners. The RFRC units are shipping containers transformed into doctors’ offices, equipped with Cisco technology that enables access to the internet and real-time translation for refugees.

The early units caught the attention of a local private donor, who funded the production of 10 additional units that have been produced and deployed to Red Cross camps throughout Hamburg, providing over 18,000 medical video-supported consultations to date. Two of the 10 units replaced the original RFRCs, and have been shipped to Lebanon and Greece for replication.

In terms of what’s next, we’ve committed equipment and employees’ expertise to support deployments with NetHope this next quarter to set up connectivity in an additional 12 sites.

Through our Networking Academy, we’ve committed to training 35,000 refugees in Germany over the next three years (15,000 by the end of this year). We’ve also just provided funding to Mercy Corps to support the expansion of Refugee Information Hub, a platform jointly developed with the International Rescue Committee, into seven new countries in 2017. The RFRC team (led by Cisco partner MLOVE) is also hoping to produce and deploy an additional 100 units.

Lastly, we’re planning to commission a third-party evaluation to look into the specific impacts of connectivity on refugee populations.

Refugees Deeply: What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far in your work with refugees? What have you learned about the risks and opportunities that companies are likely to face in addressing the refugee crisis?

Connor: I think we’ve seen firsthand just how critical connectivity is for refugees. It’s a way for them to connect with loved ones, access critical information and even begin the asylum-seeking process in a new country. “Is there Wi-Fi?” is one of the first questions refugees ask when arriving in a new place.

As cyberthreats are becoming more advanced and prevalent, and data privacy and protection is vital for the refugee population, the importance of building cybersecurity protections into the network architecture cannot be understated.

As it is apparent that refugees may be in these camps for an extended period of time, the issue of education is becoming more urgent. Having connectivity opens up opportunities for online training and remote education that could benefit children as well as adults seeking to gain job skills.

With every deployment we are learning lessons and developing best practices to improve function and efficiency. For example, we now have solution “kits” that can be built ahead of time in a controlled environment, and easily and quickly installed upon arrival at a camp.

Field deployments also give us a lot of insight into how our products function under real-world and often extreme conditions, which we then feed back to our product teams who can develop enhancements and new features. Our TacOps team also quickly learned that the internet lines in a camp need to be clearly labeled – no one wants to be that person who cuts off connectivity for an entire camp.

Refugees Deeply: How are you measuring the success of the company’s refugee programs?

Connor: We provide in-kind support, technical expertise and equipment through our TacOps team, cash grants to nonprofit partners and I.T.training through our Networking Academy, so we evaluate success differently across these three categories.

In establishing Wi-Fi, we look at the number of refugees connected to the internet, and the number of cyberthreats blocked through our networks. It’s important to us that they not only benefit from connectivity, but that they are also protected from any outside threats to their identity or safety.

Through our Networking Academy, we are tracking the number of refugees in Germany that take and complete our I.T. training courses.

Through our cash grants, we base our success on the ability of our nonprofit partners to meet the performance metrics they set. For example, we have just provided funding to help expand Refugee.Info. Some success metrics for this project include number of users, countries and user ratings to understand refugees’ satisfaction with the platform and content provided, which will inform future product development or service improvements.

Dare to be different: why foundations should take risks to tackle social problems

Surfer shooting the curl of Jaws at Peahi on Maui

By taking a risk, foundations are able to support charities in achieving sustainable change. Credit: Ron Dahlquist/Corbis

This article originally appeared in The Guardian

The news that giving by the UK’s top 300 charitable foundations has increased year-on-year to £2.5bn is a welcome chink of light amid the gloom of public sector spending cuts. But a new study into what foundations fund says more should support innovative or risky projects if they want to tackle the root causes of social problems and not just plug funding gaps.

The report by Cass Business School’s Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy (CGAP) examined how much philanthropic foundations are contributing to support research and innovation. While research is widely funded, only just over a third of respondents fund innovation.

The report concludes: “In an era of social, economic and political turbulence, there is an opportunity to increase the contribution of foundations to new approaches and solutions.”

The UK report is part of a Europe-wide study, funded by the European Commission, into research and innovation spending by foundations. Professor Cathy Pharoah, report co-author and CGAP co-director, suggests foundations should share knowledge more systematically and work more closely with partners to deliver their programmes. “It’s getting harder to take risks because money is so tight and there is an increasing demand for evidence,” she says. “Collaborative funding – where the risks are shared – is one way out of that.”

Funding root causes

In the UK, LankellyChase Foundation is one of the most visible proponents of tackling social problems in partnership with statutory and non-profit partners. By targeting people who face severe and multiple disadvantages, the foundation aims to support “systems change” – which is defined in a 2015 publication from New Philanthropy Capital as “altering underlying structures and supporting mechanisms which make the system operate in a particular way”. In other words, tackling root causes.

Alice Evans, director of systems change at LankellyChase, says the problem with traditional interventions is that they only paper over the cracks. “We are funding people to look far more at the root causes and systems,” she explains.

Launched in 2013, Love Barrow Families is a partnership between Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Cumbria County Council to improve the way adult and child health and social care services work together to meet the complex needs of families in Barrow. Backed by a £90,000 annual grant from LankellyChase, the project has improved school attendance, reduced anti-social behaviour and involved families as volunteers in their communities.

“We are funding this because we think it should be the blueprint for how Barrow and Cumbria can redesign services,” says Evans.

LankellyChase is also funding System Changers, a six-month pilot to gather insight from frontline workers in homelessness and drug services in the north of England, to improve the way clients are supported. Evans says these voices are often unheard but can help shape what needs to change. The results will be shared locally and nationally next year.

Daring and different

The Lipman Family Prize is an annual global award that celebrates innovation with an emphasis on impact and transferable practices. First awarded in 2012, it is administered by the US University of Pennsylvania through Wharton School, the school of award founder Barry Lipman.

The recently-doubled prize offers $250,000 of unrestricted funding to one main winner, and $25,000 each to two runners up. The 2015 winner, Riders for Health, manages motorcycles, ambulances and other vehicles to ensure smooth delivery of health care in seven countries across Africa.

Breakthrough, winner of the 2014 award, is a global human rights organisation working to make violence against women and girls unacceptable. Much of its work involves quick-response, multimedia campaigns to mobilise communities.

Umi Howard, director of the Lipman Family Prize, admits Breakthrough could be seen by traditional philanthropists as a “risky pick” because of its “huge mission” to prevent violence against women by transforming the norms and cultures that enable it.

Howard says: “We won’t know if they achieve their culture change goals for a decade or more. Relying on hard numbers in terms of outcomes, the prize committee could have easily gone another way, but instead selected Breakthrough as a group doing something daring and truly different.”