Today, decades into digitalization, we are seeing fundamental changes in the technology landscape. These changes are prompting international actors, including humanitarians, to seek new ways to operate globally. Open source has been identified as one possible solution.

The ICRC has always operated in challenging environments to respond to the needs of people affected by armed conflict or other violence. Today, as the ICRC grapples with how to operate effectively amidst that changing technology landscape, our technology strategy was reshaped to strengthen resilience against cybersecurity risks and to ensure critical information systems’ availability. The strategy outlines the technical foundation needed to respond in a responsible way. It is aligned with the exclusively humanitarian nature of the ICRC’s activities; the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence that support our mission; and the ICRC’s standard ways of working, which are critical to establishing and maintaining trust, access to affected people and the security of ICRC staff in the places we work.

Open source plays an important role in our technology strategy and in this talk we will share some reflections and initial learnings on how the open source journey has been starting at the ICRC, where we are, and where we are aiming. We are also seeking support and guidance from the open source community on questions and dilemmas that have arisen to date on our trip.

Finally, we are here to collaborate on the question, quo vadis open source?