Case Study: UNDP achieves faster, data-driven earthquake recovery and reconstruction with Microsoft Azure

UN and Microsoft aid disaster recovery, economic development in Nepal

Microsoft partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to respond to Nepal’s devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which killed thousands and destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings. UNDP faced an urgent, large-scale coordination challenge—managing demolition, debris recovery, payments and reconstruction across rugged terrain while documenting property and aid delivery for millions of affected people.

Working with the Microsoft Innovation Center Nepal, teams built a mobile solution on Windows Phone that links GPS-tagged photos and authorization records to Office 365, Power BI, SQL Server and Azure with hybrid on‑premises/cloud storage. The app streamlined demolition planning and the Emergency Employment Program, replaced costly field kits with $70 phones, supported more than 3,000 local hires and 2,000+ demolitions, recovered about $11 million in recyclable materials, and produced a reusable, scalable platform to accelerate future disaster recovery and economic rebuilding.

UNDP

Dan Strode

Debris Management Program Manager