About

The Working Group for Emergency Telecommunications (WGET) was established in 1996 as a technical forum promoting collaboration on interagency telecommunications issues and later became integrated with the UN Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) system of working groups supporting humanitarian action, specifically providing support to the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).  Given the evolving nature of the humanitarian landscape and in order to better support the Humanitarian Community, the WGET was redefined in 2012, following the outcomes of the WGET Strategic Planning Workshop where key WGET stakeholders articulated the future role and vision of the WGET and identified the forum’s potential to envision the future and become a forum for collaboration and innovation on behalf of the members of the ETC.

The mission of the WGET forum is to increase the effectiveness of its participants in supporting the operational and technical aspects of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for Humanitarian and Disaster relief by assisting operational partners in envisioning the future technological requirements.   This is undertaken through fostering innovation and promotion of partnerships where the forum brings together national Governments, United Nations entities, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Inter-Governmental Organizations, private sector and academia with shared interests related to regulatory, operational and technical aspects of ICT in disaster relief.

The WGET also serves as a brokerage for strengthening existing partnerships and developing new relationships within the humanitarian community. By aligning operational demand side requirements with the upstream partner network through agreed themes it is expected that the WGET community can explore and innovate future applications of Information Technology within the humanitarian domain and help envision and enable the future humanitarian landscape.

For more information:

WGET Forum website

WGET LinkedIn group
Venue for the WGET community to share relevant content

WGET forum key documents