Case Study: United Nations Departments of Political, Peacebuilding, Peace Operations, and Operational Support achieve rapid, data-driven COVID-19 field response across 42 missions with Microsoft Power Apps

Easy-to-use tools help the UN “fast-forward in a crisis” and battle the coronavirus pandemic

The United Nations Departments of Peace Operations faced an urgent need for precise, up-to-date field data to coordinate COVID-19 responses across dozens of missions—tracking everything from ventilators to handwashing stations in rapidly changing, high-risk environments. To meet this challenge they turned to Microsoft Power Apps and the broader Office 365/Azure toolset (including PowerApps, Power BI, SharePoint, and Teams) to enable a no- or low-code, self-service approach that frontline staff could use on mobile devices.

Using Microsoft Power Apps as the core of a field reporting platform woven with SharePoint, Power BI, Teams and Azure, the team built and rolled out the solution in about 10 days—deploying to 37 missions (now 42) and training more than 100,000 field staff across 37 countries. The automated flows and dashboards produced two versions of seven daily reports, cut reporting time dramatically (what once would have taken a day per report), reduced staffing needs (avoiding a team three times larger), and enabled proactive, data-driven actions like PPE reallocation through color-coded risk assessments.

United Nations Departments of Peace Operations

Kersten Jauer

Senior Planning Officer