VIDEO: Can Virtual Reality Change Humanitarian Advocacy?

One of the key challenges facing the humanitarian community is getting people to care about the plight of vulnerable people halfway around the world. And then, once they care, inspire them to take some action–donate to an NGO, write a letter to their member of congress, or even just share a story on social media.

This has been an enduring challenge since the rise of advocacy campaigns, but given the broken state of the humanitarian system today the need for people to be more deeply engaged in humanitarian issues has never been more urgent.

The premise of this video from the United Nations is that virtual reality video could be a powerful new tool for the humanitarian community to engage the public and policy makers.

As one technologist says in this video, Virtual Reality video has the unique attribute for creating “a heightened sense of empathy, a heightened sense of connection.”