Press Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Global Information Technology Alliance to enhance humanitarian operations in East Africa

July 06, 2007

NAIROBI, Kenya – NetHope International – a US based global information technology alliance of 19 of the world’s largest aid agencies announced the formation of its East Africa chapter today in Nairobi – a move that is designed to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among humanitarian agencies operating in the region.

“I am delighted that the benefits of technical collaboration and innovation that have significantly benefited NetHope members at the international level will be applied to the special needs of field offices in East Africa,” said Dr. William Brindley, CEO of NetHope International. 

NetHope’s East Africa chapter is the third regional hub for interagency collaboration around the use of information and communications technologies.  Previously, chapters were formed in Sri Lanka and India with others expected to form later this year and in 2008.

“Collaboration between humanitarian agencies helps to improve service delivery in everything we do. ActionAid has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars through the arrangement for software grant from Microsoft negotiated by NetHope,” said Japheth Ngoya – the Africa Information Technology Manager for ActionAid.

The formation of the East Africa chapter allows the members to collaborate on technical projects to better serve their regional communities, work with product and service providers to incorporate innovative solutions for their programs, and provide a space for the wider humanitarian community.

Members are also benefiting through information technology training.

“Information technology helps to establish essential connections between agencies and improve coordination of resources and programmes to the end beneficiaries” said Dr. Brindley.

Representatives of leading humanitarian organizations like ActionAid, World Vision International, Catholic Relief Services, Plan International, Opportunity International, Oxfam GB, International Rescue Committee and African Medical and Research Foundation, were present.

The inaugural meeting was hosted by ActionAid and will be hosted in the future by other member agencies on a rotating basis.

Funding for the formation of the NetHope East Africa chapter was provided by the member agencies and the Emergency Capacity Building project (www.ecbproject.org).

For more information, contact

Mr. Frank Schott                                                           

East Africa Chapter Advisor                                               

NetHope                         

1-425-765-9890

Frankschott@comcast.net

NetHope (www.nethope.org): NetHope is a new generation Information and Communications Technology consortium of 19 of the international community’s leading non-governmental organizations. NetHope is dedicated to the best use of available technology resources by its member agencies in order to improve their ability to deliver community benefit in the developing world. It does this by working as a highly collaborative team, sharing ICT knowledge, solving common problems, creating industry relationships to support the public benefit work of all of its members, and educating members as well as the wider community of NGOs, 

A not-for-profit incorporated in the USA, is a global information technology consortium of nineteen of the world’s leading humanitarian organizations.  Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, NetHope empowers its members to offer improved services to their beneficiaries by developing innovative and sensible IT solutions, negotiating pricing discounts, providing program management services and a forum for sharing knowledge and experiences.  In its seven years of existence NetHope has successfully completed deployment of a network of over 100 monitored satellite locations including an Internet Telephony trial. Broadband solutions for fixed and mobile relief sites in disaster-affected regions of Iraq, Iran, Liberia, Afghanistan, Chad, Indonesia and Pakistan have also been deployed.  NetHope has long-term strategic relationships with major high-technology corporations to allow members to avail of telecommunications, computing and software products at affordable prices.