Feb 7, 2019
The Crisis Connectivity Charter is a mechanism created between the satellite industry and the wider humanitarian community, which is designed to make satellite-based communications more readily available to humanitarians and affected communities thanks to pre-defined and pre-set solutions allowing immediate response at times of disaster.
The Charter was developed by the EMEA Satellite Operator’s Association (ESOA) and the Global VSAT Forum (GVF) and their members, in coordination with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), led by the World Food Programme (WFP). When activated by the ETC, the Charter aims to foster more efficient cooperation between the satellite industry, local governments, non-government organizations (NGOs) and the broader humanitarian community in the initial stages of a disaster, allowing for better communication planning, increased connectivity and support for emergency responses.
The Charter helps support increased coordination by prioritizing access to bandwidth for humanitarian purposes during disaster responses and by allocating pre-positioned satellite equipment and transmission capacity in high-risk countries. It also provides training and capacity building for the humanitarian community around the world. The Crisis Connectivity Charter will help ensure the ETC and its partners can better leverage satellite-based technology to provide life-saving connectivity to humanitarians and affected populations when disaster strikes.