Humanitarian Aid and Exploring Efficiency of Service Delivery in the Age of Communication and Technology: Jordan as a case study

Abstract: Information and communication technologies (ICT) are becoming a growing form of designing and implementing humanitarian response in emergency and post conflict areas. This research explores the role ICTs play in the new era of emerging humanitarian spaces, focusing on two main UN agencies, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), that cover a wide range of services in Jordan. This master thesis investigates the different interventions of these two organizations in response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan, asking how ICTs contributed to the efficiency of their service delivery. This study also analyses the changes ICTs brought to UNHCR’s and UNICEF’s humanitarian response in Jordan by comparing the nature of response before and after the integration of ICTs in the different programs. By examining the existing literature related to the use of ICT in humanitarian response combined with fieldwork conducting key informant interviews with UNHCR and UNICEF staff in the field of innovation and ICT, this master thesis aims to provide a critical perspective on the digital development discourse. This study argues that ICT has helped to increase the efficiency of humanitarian services delivery by decreasing the overall cost of interventions and decreasing the time needed to respond to the beneficiaries needs, leading to increase beneficiaries’ satisfaction.