In a world where over 120 million people have been forced to flee because of violence, conflict, persecution and increasingly climate-related emergencies, businesses have a unique and vital role to play in safeguarding the human rights of forcibly displaced people.
In 2002, UNHCR introduced biometrics, and leveraged the technology to manage the identity of the people it serves effectively. By capturing up to 10 fingerprints, 2 irises and a face photo during the initial encounter, biometrics play a crucial role from confirming an individual’s physical presence to providing assistance. UNHCR’s Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS) serves a diverse user base including UNHCR staff, partners, governments, and soon refugees themselves through self-service applications, all in a user-friendly manner. While BIMS has undergone countless improvements throughout the years, the biometric scanner devices used have remained largely unchanged.
UNHCR developed a Nowcasting dashboard to provide an estimate of actual forced displacement figures when official figures are unavailable with an accuracy of close to 99% compared to officially published figures at the global level. These nowcasts are incredibly important in the humanitarian sector as they inform UNHCR and its partners of the rapidly changing situation in almost real-time and enable more efficient decision-making such as emergency resource allocation.
