Building on our track record of technical innovation, and integrated with our existing email and SMS field distribution systems, the App utilises your smartphone’s location tracking to send users real-time alerts of incidents occurring in their immediate vicinity.
Around 40% of NGO security incidents occur while staff are in-transit. As such, the safety of humanitarians on the move is a priority concern. Whether to understand where checkpoints are or how to divert around a town where an armed clash is occurring, the key to safety on the road is timely information relative to your location.
“For the first time, INSO can offer alerts relative to where NGO staff are at any time. We expect it to be especially useful for NGO staff planning and during road missions, and to monitor incidents around project sites,” says Austin Weidler, Director of Technology & Innovation at INSO.
NGO staff who are registered with INSO can log in with their existing credentials to access all the innovative features of the App. These features include Proximity Mode, where you can set a radius for alerts from up to 100 km. Another key feature is Geo-Fence, which allows users to define an area of interest and receive notice of anything that occurs within it.
“We expect the App’s features to work together. When travelling to an intervention site, for example, NGO staff in the vehicle could use proximity mode. Meanwhile, their safety focal point back at the office can create a geo-fence for the entire route. In this example, even with a loss of network coverage, the NGO will still be alerted to incidents that might affect their team in transit,” says Ramin Daqiq, Software Developer at INSO who led the App development.
The App also provides a searchable archive of incidents to assist NGOs in their planning and operational analysis.
As the world’s largest NGO safety network, supporting more than 1,200 organisations across 16 high-risk countries, the INSO App is part of our ongoing mission to help those who help others.
Users can download the App, available in French and English, on both Apple and Android devices.
This app and all INSO’s work is supported by humanitarian funding from the European Commission, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, Global Affairs Canada, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands, Le Gouvernement du Grand-Duché du Luxembourg, Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the United Nation’s Offices for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.