UNRWA April 2020

UNRWA

DIGITAL REPORT 2020

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION TO DRIVE REFUGEES’ OPPORTUNITIES IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION TO DRIVE REFUGEES’ OPPORTUNITIES

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KAAN CETINTURK, CIO AND DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY AT UNRWA, DISCUSSES HOW TECHNOLOGY IS DRIVING RELIEF EFFORTS FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEES

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T

he plight of Palestine refugees represents one of the most enduring human tragedies of the modern world, such that

the mere mention of the region’s name now evokes imagery of wars, refugee camps, dead-end peace negotiations and young Palestinians who long to get the same opportunities as their peers elsewhere. While the geopolitical complexities of the situation limit a full resolution of the conflict to the future, incredible work is being done to support refugees in the region through education, healthcare and job creation. Humanitarian aid for displaced Palestinians across Gaza, Jordan, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Lebanon and Syria is conducted primarily by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which currently provides vital services to over 5.6 million people registered with the organisation.

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“ We need an IT infrastructure that matches our operations, and that’s able to function in unpredictable conditions even during emergency such as with power cuts and unstable terrestrial connectivity, all while keeping our data safe and protected”

Founded by the UN General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA has delivered primary and vocational education, primary health, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvements, microfinance, and emergency response in situations including armed conflict since it began operations on 1 May 1950. Over

— Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA

the past 70 years, the organisation has come to operate 709 elementary prep schools and nine secondary schools (together educating 540,000

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young refugees alongside technical and vocational training for a further 8,000), and 144 health centres offering comprehensive primary care. In 2019, UNRWA’s provided health services to 3.5 million refugees through 8.5 million combined patient visits over the course of the year.

Kaan Cetinturk, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Director of Information Management and Technology at UNRWA, began his career with the UN in 2005 as a Business Process Manager for the World Health Organisation (WHO), progressing through roles in Geneva and Kuala Lumpur before joining

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07 UNRWA in December 2018. In his

that matches our operations, mak-

current role, Cetinturk is the principal

ing sure that we are connected at all

advisor to the agency’s management

times. We are working together with

committee with regards to information

an experienced long-standing provider

management and technology, strate-

of reliable satellite communication

gic architectural governance policy

solutions enabling us to function in

and operational methods; thereby

unpredictable conditions and even

orchestrating the technological offer-

during emergency such as with power

ing for refugees and the continuous

cuts and unstable terrestrial con-

development of those platforms.

nectivity, all while keeping our data

“UNRWA is considered to be a huge

safe and protected. It is vital for us to

UN agency with 30,000 staff members

use satellite connectivity in addition

served by the IT department over five

to terrestrial connectivity to mitigate

field offices,” Cetinturk explains. “That

business continuity risks and to ensure

means we need an IT infrastructure

voice and video communications with w w w.un r wa . org

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our field offices independent of local

says. “Due to a very difficult financial

infrastructure.” He adds that, despite

situation we experienced over the

its differences from for-profit organisa-

last few years, the digital environment

tions, UNRWA’s digital transformation

was obsolete. In order to drive digital

strives for the same goals: to remain

transformation we had to find sources

ahead of the curve, to be secure,

of funding, and so when I joined we

to provide solutions for end-users,

turned every stone for cost efficiency.”

to develop cutting-edge applications,

Having spurred bigger coffers

and to move to paperless operations.

through this approach, Cetinturk and

When he joined the organisation,

his team then turned to the six core

Cetinturk inherited a challenging digi-

strategies they sought to implement.

tal environment. “UNRWA is funded

“First was to drive engagement and

almost entirely by voluntary contribu-

value across our programmes and

tions from UN member states,” he

departments, second to improve the

strength of our cybersecurity, third

elaborates Cetinturk. “Our business

to drive process efficiency, fourth to

engagement team works to maxim-

boost cost-effectiveness, fifth to build

ise the value we deliver to UNRWA

staff capacity, and sixth to align tech-

departments and programmes by

nology and innovation.”

understanding their work and bring-

To facilitate these goals, the team

ing innovation to the table. We have

was restructured into “a flatter struc-

also significantly improved the way our

ture” to enable greater agility and

headquarters, field information man-

efficiency. “In this restructuring, we

agement and technology offices work

established individual offices under the

together towards the same objective.

CIO for information security, project

That alignment has been absolutely

management and enterprise architec-

essential for our digital strategy.”

ture, along with dedicated teams for DevOps and business engagement,”

The nature of the organisation, Cetinturk says, means that it does not

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Kaan Cetinturk Kaan Cetinturk is CIO and the Director of Information Management and Technology Department at United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) where he provides leadership to the Department and ensure that information management and technology (IMT) services across the Agency are efficient, effective and to the highest standards. Kaan has extensive leadership experience in United Nations organisations with expertise in IT, business process transformation, digital strategy, governance, organisational restructuring and people management.

He is f luent in Turkish, English and French. w w w.un r wa . org

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“ First was to drive engagement and value across our programmes and departments, second to improve the strength of our cybersecurity, third to drive process efficiency, fourth to boost cost-effectiveness, fifth to build staff capacity, and sixth to align technology and innovation” — Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA

UNRWA’s operations and services have all benefited exponentially from these comprehensive strategies, and this is perhaps best demonstrated by its healthcare and education platforms and the ways they have both aided millions of refugees. E-health, its proprietary healthcare management system, is connected to the organisation’s ERP platform and is thereby augmented with the medical data of all registered refugees. “Before the implementation of e-health, UNRWA’s health centres were very crowded with

have the luxury of sequential strategies

patients who had to wait a long time to

with the aim of serving each goal in

receive the services they need,” recalls

time. Instead, programmes are strate-

Cetinturk. “Contact time with doctors

gically aligned across all six objectives

was also relatively short because of

to serve them each in parallel. “These

the crowdedness.”

programmes include many cyberse-

A major factor causing these

curity initiatives, implementation of an

bottlenecks was the lack of digital

agency-wide service management

infrastructure, leaving healthcare

platform, a document management

providers to use paper-based records

system for digitalisation of our paper

whose receipt was delayed by the

records, adoption of business intel-

inherent slowness of inter-office

ligence technologies for transparency

transfers. “It was also very tedious to

and better decision-making, and mod-

extract reports about any of the func-

ernisation of our infrastructure,” he

tions in the health centres, including

says. “Along with this, we have finalised

statistics about services delivered and

the agency cloud strategy.”

the consumption of medicines, medical w w w.un r wa . org

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supplies and other required resources.

Upon the introduction of e-health, there has been serious improvement.”

By conducting ongoing assessments of the system to ensure its value is maximised, some exciting statistical examples of e-health’s impact have been drawn out. “The daily medical consultations for doctors were reduced from 104 to 86 a day, the time needed to collect medication was reduced to three minutes, and the antibiotics prescription rate was decreased from an average of 27% to 24.7%,” says Cetinturk. Along with these improvements to patient care and operational efficiency, e-health also provides a remote dashboard detailing health centre status, daily operations and healthcare provided to patients, delivering a daily stream of comprehensive reports and statistics.

While figures such as these can mask the real-world approval of such systems, UNRWA’s healthcare providers have been overwhelmingly positive in their feedback. “89% of physicians surveyed expressed satisfaction with the new e-health system, particularly in terms of time saved and how it allows them w w w.un r wa . org

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“ Upon the introduction of e-health, there has been serious improvement” — Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA

system offers similar benefits for students and staff across the organisation and the people it serves. As a result of its deployment, enrolment, registration, attendance, transfers, and achievements are all handled via the app, streamlining the administrative processes whilst democratising the services’ availability. In addition,

to provide more and better attention to

students can access their unique

patients, and they believe it manages

reports, student identification

the crowds in a timely and fair way.”

details and achievement certificates

In addition to the impact made at healthcare sites, e-health provides

through the app.

These efforts support one of

additional services through its inte-

UNRWA’s most ambitious projects: a

grated mobile applications such as

Gaza-based IT centre that has entered

e-MCH (maternal and child health) and

operations and seeks to capitalise on

e-NCD (non-communicable diseases).

the wealth of digital literacy among

E-MCH, Cetinturk explains, offers an

young Gazans. “The near-13 years of

Arabic language interface to enable

blockade has taken a huge toll on the

mothers to access the electronic

economy and on the prospects for

health records of both themselves and

young people to achieve their dreams,”

their children, push notifications for

says Cetinturk. “Their travel is tightly

appointments and reminders based on

restricted, business is difficult, the

either the stage of pregnancy or the

politics are very complicated, and the

ages of a mother’s children, along with

borders are nearly sealed. So what can

health education content.

a 20-year-old IT professional do under

Education forms a considerable

these circumstances? The economy’s

component of UNRWA’s services,

devastation has resulted in impover-

and its education management

ishment and retrogression of a highly w w w.un r wa . org

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U N RWA

skilled and well-educated society.

In 2018, the average unemployment rate was over 50%, one of the highest according to the World Bank, and the number of Palestine refugees relying on UNRWA for food aid has increased from fewer than 80,000 in 2000 to almost one million in 2019.

With this in mind, Gaza should be turned into an opportunity.”

UNRWA has thus established an IT centre in Gaza to deliver offshore IT services. Employing young 16

Gazans, the centre leverages the global connectivity of the internet to provide service desk, application

“ I would like to emphasise that any company that would like to partner with us to drive our digital transformation should contact me” — Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA

development and business management services for enterprises around the world. “I encourage businesses worldwide to explore ways to connect with young Gazans and see how much space there is to support young people in launching and managing businesses online. The centre is fully functional and has already delivered an agency-wide in-house development information system,” enthuses Cetinturk. “My next mission, from this point onward, is to make the IT service

1949

Year founded

5.5mn+

People we provide with assistance and protection

30,000 Number of employees

centre known to other UN agencies

for their prospects. “I would like to

so they can make use of it. We’re now

emphasise that any company that

in discussions with other agencies to

would like to partner with us to drive our

use it as their application development

digital transformation should contact

competency centre.�

me. It can start as part of their social

In the age of digital transformation,

responsibility initiatives, but we are

it is deeply encouraging to find such

keen and able to quickly develop part-

humanitarian efforts being delivered

nerships that benefit both parties.

through technology by passionate and driven teams such as that headed by Cetinturk, and indeed across UNRWA as a whole. For those who would like to get involved, Cetinturk is enthusiastic w w w.un r wa . org

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UNRWA BAYADER WADI SEER PO BOX 140157 AMMAN 11814 AMMAN JORDAN T +962 6 580 8100 www.unrwa.org

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