Does this count as humanitarian action?
On a regular basis I get asked, or am pondering with my team, what “counts” as humanitarian action. For most of you not working in the space of the future of doing good, this might seem a little random. It usually starts with some curiosity, followed by confusion and then occasionally disregard. Along the lines of “So, does coaching the footy team count?” or “What about a fun run? Does that count?”. Followed by “What about giving the guy out the front of Coles loose change?” or “How about helping out a neighbour?”, and then “Surely not buying ethical products?” and “How about voting, is that humanitarian?” and eventually we get to “Tweeting definitely doesn’t count…right?”.
In any group environment, this question is a sure fire way to spark discussion and divergent views and personal experiences. Ranging from humanitarian action as a huge, personally and globally significant act that contributes to the world, through to it being every micro action that makes us human.
The reality is, even in going deep in to the research of the current and future state of humanitarian action, there is no one clear answer. What I do feel confident about though, is that now more than ever the world’s most pressing humanitarian issues must be solved by the power of people. Equally, no one action, person, organisation or hashtag movement will solve these issues alone. We need to shift from a lens of what counts to one that understands, activates and amplifies the network of human good. So when we’re deep in conversations of does this count? My mind gets curious about the below three questions:
What if we thought about humanitarian action from a ‘futures’ mindset?
What if humanitarian action wasn’t part of an organisation, program or service? What if it was an asset or resource that we create or obtain like currency? What does action look like when we spend more than half of our time in hybrid realities? How will we ‘do good’ through our biology, DNA or data?
What if we thought about action as networks rather than individuals?
What if we think about humanitarian action as a behaviour rather than a program, role or title? Does that change our expectations of actions or individuals? What if we focused on patterns emerging from masses of action rather than every individual action? What if organisations shifted from pipelines to platforms, figuring out how to connect humanitarian action with humanitarian needs at pace?
Does humanitarian action need to be complex or grandiose?
Does the action need to match the complexity of the humanitarian problem? What if we designed from a lowest barrier to entry approach? What if we looked at action as dynamic and evolving? What if we could tweak existing human behaviours (purchasing, eating, sleeping etc) to be more ‘humanitarian’?
Disappointingly, I don’t have an answer to all of these questions, so I’m constantly exploring the new and emerging ideas and inspiration from the curious humans out there wanting to do more good. Below are a few examples, and I now ask you…do you reckon they count?
Donate your data for good
There are numerous projects, platforms and organisations emerging that enable individuals to donate everything from their health apps and records to wearables data. Open Humans is an online platform that allows you to upload a range of personal data sets and then choose how you’d like to donate them, from general availability to specific research projects. 7,000 people and almost 20,000 datasets.
Litterati
A social media movement, Litterati has more than 20k followers on Instagram who are mapping and collecting the worlds litter one piece at a time. Individuals post images of litter in visually compelling ways and then responsibly dispose of it. This simple, and clever movement uses geotagging and hashtags via socials to map litter, litter types and brands to then explore ways to collaborate around sustainability at scale.
Playing Rocket League in the name of Loneliness
In 2018, more than 5,000 people joined the #BeatLoneliness movement, re-branding their teams (as team Loneliness) for a game or season to make themselves, and loneliness, the team to beat. Teams took to the field, online games and social media, equipped with key information about loneliness to support them in speaking with friends, teammates and colleagues.
Be My Eyes
Launched in 2015 and now available in over 150 countries with well over 1 million users, Be My Eyes creates a simple digital connection in which sighted people lend their eyes to solve immediate, everyday challenges faced by those with vision impairment.
Kids reading to puppies
The Shelter Buddies Reading Program, operated through the Humane Society of Missouri, matches shy pooches with kids learning to read. Each week these youngsters come along able to practice their reading through the warm, non-judgemental eye of the pups
Peer network communities solving healthcare
We have seen significant growth in self-organising groups and communities, that bypass formal volunteer involving organisations often seeking to address hyper-local issues (ie. Those that are deeply personally relevant). For example Patients Like Me is a patient-reported, cross-condition data platform, with over 600,000 members sharing their personal experiences in the hope of advancing healthcare.
