With natural and geopolitical crises emerging around the world, ensuring reliable connectivity is vital in minimising the impact of such events on the local communities and the wider populations. Over recent months, SES has been partnering with the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme, supported by the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), to facilitate humanitarian efforts in Burkina Faso. The co-funded SENO pilot project (Satellite in Response to the Needs of Humanitarian Organisations) provided essential connectivity to the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations operating in the remote Niger-bordered municipality of Dori, some 265km from the capital Ouagadougou, identifying thousands of individuals in need of assistance in the region, and helping many displaced people make contact with their families.
For several years now, Burkina Faso has been grappling with significant instability, marked by escalating extremist violence, political upheaval and humanitarian crises that have resulted in connectivity challenges. The landlocked country, and the broader Sahel region, have frequently seen terrestrial networks become destroyed or congested. These hurdles have made it difficult for humanitarian organisations to carry out missions, limiting their capacity to support the social and economic well-being of displaced and local communities.
To help address critical connectivity issues, SES and Red Cross Burkina Faso have launched the SENO project under the ESA BASS framework "Space in Response to Humanitarian Crises". This partnership provided a reliable, independent and low-latency communication channel for multiple humanitarian organisations in Dori. IP-based services were used to support displaced individuals and the local community, facilitate the collection and transmission of data using digital applications, online training and collaboration.
“Reliable high-speed connectivity is a critical capability that enables the humanitarian community to provide help on the ground. Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite services are a key building block in addressing this connectivity need, especially where access to fibre is limited. It was an honour for us to join efforts with ESA, the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) and the Red Cross in supporting this meaningful initiative, and leverage our expertise in deploying services for institutions and organisations in remote locations,” said Philippe Glaesener, Senior Vice President, Space & Defence at SES.
The MEO-enabled service allowed significant improvements in daily operations. Project ECHO/APP CRBF user said “The VSAT connection has a very good throughput, we no longer have any difficulties in transmitting our reports and data collection. Software like Microsoft365, Outlook, TEAMS, OneDrive, requires a good connection. I had always heard about online meetings, and it was a great experience for me to finally benefit from these while in Dori – connecting with colleagues in Kongoussi, Fada and Ouagadougou.”
Building on SES’s and Luxembourg’s previous experience in deploying the ICT infrastructure in five locations of Burkina Faso, this collaboration with ESA BASS was a logical step in responding to the evolving needs of the communities and humanitarian workers. SES’s Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) with its Internet Gateway in Europe, served as the key enabler of the high-performance connectivity solution. End users enjoyed guaranteed 72 Mbps download and 33 Mbps upload speeds across 11 sites. The initiative was backed by the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) and the local Burkinabe authority responsible for ICT, ANPTIC, who provided access to the telecom infrastructure previously installed in partnership with LuxDev.
Nil Angli, Business Applications and Partnerships Officer at ESA said "Communication is a foundation for humanitarian response operations - enabling both effective coordination between response teams, as well as information sharing with crisis-affected communities; yet many remote field offices still struggle to obtain even unreliable, low bandwidth connectivity. This project has demonstrated that satellite connectivity can be game-changing not only for rapid disaster response, but also for prolonged operations in complex protracted crises. We are delighted to have supported this project and to see the ongoing impact of the collaboration in Burkina Faso."
The SENO pilot took place over several months. By facilitating around 29,000 hours of applications usage such as videoconferencing, emails and more, it was able to benefit nearly 900 users, including 217 humanitarian workers. It also helped humanitarians identify more than 4,400 individuals in need of help and enabled more than 50 displaced people make contact with their families after separation as a result of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region.