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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U N RWA
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
U N RWA
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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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U N RWA
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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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