Each year, world leaders convene in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. At this year’s event, there was much focus on the refugee crisis.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres stated that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has never had to address so much human misery in its 64-year history as it does today.  The current refugee crisis has left more than 51.2 million displaced – the highest number since World War II.

At the ‘Technology for Humanity’ dinner in Davos, which was attended by 100 leaders from civil society, the private sector and government, there was an opportunity to highlight Refugees United (REFUNITE) as one project leveraging data and technology for humanitarian response.

The family reconnection platform is a joint project by Ericsson and REFUNITE. As the leading technology partner, Ericsson has helped REFUNITE build the platform and create free access to the platform in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. With more than 400,000 users on the platform, refunite.org has grown into the biggest platform for separated refugees globally.

Today’s  level of digital interconnectivity is also growing exponentially; making it impossible to ignore the influence technology is having on our daily lives and how humanitarian organizations deliver support to vulnerable communities around the world.

Photo credit: Monika Flueckiger, Word Economic Forum 2015