Insights, ideas, and innovation

Our thoughts on how digital technology can drive inclusion, bridge gaps, and create opportunities for excluded communities by improving access, amplifying voices, and creating meaningful connections.

Why Co-Design Isn't Research and What Needs to Change

April 2025

Research is the foundation of the humanitarian sector. From needs assessments to monitoring and evaluation, nearly every decision is backed by data. It's a system built on observing, measuring, and analysing.

StrategySocial ImpactInclusive DesignCo-creationWorkshop facilitation
So Here We Are. Clearer in Purpose, Sharper in Focus

March 2025

We’ve refined our positioning, re-articulated our offer, and rebuilt our site to reflect the work we do now, the challenges communities face, and the future we’re designing for.

StrategySocial ImpactInclusive Design
Navigating Ethical Consent in Humanitarian Settings: A Practical Framework

February 2025

When ethics and emergencies collide, there are no easy answers. At Here I Am, we’ve evolved our consent approach—balancing urgency with dignity, privacy, and context.

ResearchYouth
Contribution vs. comfort: are your workshops striking the right balance for participants?

January 2025

Workshops with participants who are camera-off and on mute can feel ineffective, but this may not be the case. When engagement is low, it’s natural to question success, however silence doesn’t always equal disengagement.

Workshop facilitation
Fatima: The researcher verdict

November 2024

We spoke to a group of ethical field researchers (and Fatima fans), about their recent experience using Fatima, our ethical research platform to conduct field research in Nigeria. Here's what they had to say.

FatimaRemote data collectionResearchQualitative research
What Is a Product Owner, and Why Does Every INGO Need One?

October 2024

A Product Owner is the strategic leader and central force behind a digital product’s vision, development, and success. We explain why this is a critical hire for INGOs struggling to scale digital products and services.

StrategyDigital TransformationProduct Design

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Celebrating World Translation Day: Why we should use machines for speed, but humans for accuracy.

September 2024

Advances in AI and natural language processing have made translation tools faster and more efficient. However, how well are they supporting marginalised languages?

AI Implementations
The Digital Transformation of Qualitative Research

August 2024

Discover how digital advancements are transforming qualitative research in humanitarian aid, making it faster, easier, and more impactful. Learn how platforms like Fatima are breaking down barriers to ensure every voice is heard.

FatimaDigital TransformationQualitative research
Tackling Presentation Challenges in the Humanitarian Sector with Figma Slides

July 2024

Progress. It's a sprint, not a marathon

July 2024

The social impact sector demands rapid response to urgent problems, yet, the pace of progress and delivery in the sector can be painfully slow. When a project loses momentum, a design sprint is the perfect approach to supercharge it.

Google Ventures SprintsWorkshop facilitationGenderSocial Impact
Becoming a Digital Designer

June 2024

To celebrate 1 year of working at Here I Am, we asked Diana Wambui, our wonderful Junior Digital Designer, what she’d learnt in her first 12 months with us and what advice she would give to other designers joining the sector.

Product Design
4 recent innovations to celebrate this World Refugee Day

June 2024

Each year on 20 June we join UNHCR in honouring people who have been forced to flee. This World Refugee Day we reflect on the most impactful innovations that have been created to support refugees worldwide.

Displaced communities
Here I Am 2024: A new process and a new perspective

May 2024

In the past 3 years since Here I Am launched, we have grown up, our work has grown up and the way we do things has too. Today we share our refined process and perspective that will guide us through the next 3 years.

Strategy
International Girls In ICT Day 2024

April 2024

This International Girls in ICT Day is focused on the theme of leadership and we’re joining the celebrations by inviting Here I Am founders Laura Scanlon, CEO and Vitória Silva, COO to share their tips for women and girls joining the industry.

Gender
(Most of) the humanitarian sector is bad at design. Why does that matter?

April 2024

The majority of digital products, services and systems created by INGO and Humanitarian orgs still fail. Rarely is the finger pointed at bad design. Yet bad design can be the root cause of failure. And it’s everywhere in the humanitarian sector.

Product Design

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