Case Study: Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU) achieves near‑real‑time crisis monitoring and faster reporting to support Syrian IDPs and refugees with Microsoft Azure

Serving Syrian IDPs and refugees with the help of cloud technology

Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU) is a Turkey-based nonprofit that provides crisis information to humanitarian organizations serving Syrian internally displaced people and refugees. ACU relied on on‑premises servers that became inaccessible during frequent electricity and internet outages across Syria, delaying critical data delivery and hampering timely responses to disease outbreaks, malnutrition and other emergencies.

With strategic grants from Microsoft, ACU migrated to Azure and adopted Power BI and Office 365, strengthening its EWARN disease-surveillance and Information Management Unit systems. The cloud-based setup and analytics cut report preparation from about a month to one or two days, enabled ACU to publish 45+ reports a year (including 15+ flash reports), and moved the organization closer to real-time crisis monitoring so aid partners can respond faster on the ground.

Assistance Coordination Unit

Khaled Amir

IT Manager