Competence hub on digital governance in crisis-affected regions

Context

Digital technologies are becoming increasingly common in humanitarian contexts. While they offer new opportunities, they also raise important ethical challenges, particularly in fragile and crisis-affected settings. There is a growing need to ensure that these tools respect the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, while enhancing the effectiveness, inclusiveness and ethical grounding of humanitarian action.

The “Establishment of a Competence Hub on Digital Governance in crisis affected regions (Digital Governance)” initiative responds to this need by supporting the development of ethical approaches to digital governance.

Objectives

The initiative aims to strengthen ethical digital governance in regions affected by humanitarian crises, thereby reinforcing principled, effective, and inclusive humanitarian and development aid.

To this end, the initiative supports the establishment of a Competence Hub on Digital Governance, hosted by ULIDE (University of Luxembourg Institute for Digital Ethics) and developed in partnership with universities, humanitarian organisations, policymakers, and practitioners from crisis affected regions. The Hub will serve as a central platform for interdisciplinary research, targeted education and capacity building, and strategic guidance for humanitarian and development actors.

This initiative reflects Luxembourg’s ambition to position itself as a leader in humanitarian innovation. It complements the country’s planned Humanitarian Technology Hub, structured around four thematic pillars: cybersecurity; data management, protection, and ethics; connectivity; and engineering. The Digital Governance initiative contributes to these efforts by attracting and engaging international partners in joint research and innovation.

Stakeholders

The Digital Governance initiative engages a broad network of stakeholders across Luxembourg, the Global North, and crisis impacted regions.

ULIDE leads the Hub’s research, capacity building, and knowledge dissemination activities, while LuxDev supports the activities in its partner countries. Partnerships include research institutions, think tanks, and humanitarian organisations contributing complementary expertise and operational experience. Collaboration with research institutions and practitioners in these regions is central to ensuring that the Hub’s work remains context relevant, inclusive, and applicable.