Upon their return, in January 2010, the humanitarian rescue teams pointed out the lack of coordination of international aid in Port-au-Prince due to the destruction of the existing telecommunications infrastructure.
As the first 72 hours after a disaster are crucial for saving lives, rapid and organised aid on the spot is essential.
Faced with this problem, Luxembourg’s Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs saw the need for a mobile and deployable solution and this led to the development of the emergency.lu platform.
Originally developed as a satellite-based telecommunications system, emergency.lu has evolved into a comprehensive emergency response platform.
Today, it integrates satellite and ICT solutions with strategic humanitarian stockpiles, medical evacuation operations, capacity-building programs, and critical humanitarian infrastructure support—enhancing coordination, connectivity, and resilience in disaster-affected regions worldwide.
A strong partnership
Partnerships are fundamental to emergency.lu’s way of working and are built on the principle of working at eye level with one another.
emergency.lu collaborates with United Nations agencies, DG ECHO, national authorities, implementing entities, and commercial companies alike, treating all partners as equal contributors united by a shared humanitarian objective.
Each partner brings distinct expertise—whether strategic coordination, operational capacity, or specialized technical solutions—but cooperation is based on mutual respect, trust, and complementarity, not hierarchy.
This approach enables emergency.lu to integrate humanitarian, public, and private‑sector strengths into a single, coherent system capable of delivering reliable, timely, and high‑quality services wherever crises occur.
Communication, engagement and support has been outstanding and very professional. We strive to further strengthen and develop the support and assistance to the humanitarian program of emergency.lu.
The Luxembourg Air Ambulance (LAA) is honoured to have partnered with the emergency.lu programme since 2012. The LAA has consistently appreciated the exceptional collaboration within the parameters of this public-private partnership.