26 / Canadian Government Executive // January/February 2022 INTERVIEW Q: Thank you so much to all three of you again for being here and for the very unique vantage points that you bring to the conversation... I just want to give you the floor because it’s a really fascinating piece. So maybe I’ll throw it over to Ali, but leave it to the three of you to determine how you want to tell the story. Ali Shakil: Yeah. Thanks, Lori. So perhaps I’ll start, and Eleanor and Arjun jump in, but what really got us excited about working together with Aman Lara here on this challenge was that we saw on the news that there was a dire situation where Canadians could help the situation in Afghanistan. And when we first heard from Aman Lara’s organization about the assistance, they needed to evacuate people in Afghanistan that were involved with supporting Canadians. We were very excited to jump in, and the challenge that was brought to us was they had many different people that they wanted to support, but they didn’t necessarily have the systems, processes, or ability to manage the information of all these people in an effective and efficient way. They were also collaborating very closely with other NGOs. They were collaborating closely with the government. So, as you can imagine, managing this information of people that’s very private, it needs to be handled securely. It needs to be managed efficiently, doing that on a manual ad hoc basis using rudimentary tools such as Excel, using some basic tools online... it wasn’t doing the job. So, when we got this business problem, we thought it was a great opportunity to pull together a team that was passionate about this space, wanted to help and get something up and running quickly, where we can get applicant information securely, process it safely, and have all that information in a very private, safe, and secure manner through the use of digital technologies. And I think Eleanor and Arjun could probably do a great job touching more on the human aspect of the situation. IBM builds technology platform to help NGOs manage Afghan refugee information Lori Turnbull, Deputy Editor at Canadian Government Executive, recently spoke with Ali Shakil, partner at IBM Consulting Canada, Arjun Grewal, President of ONE9 Capability Labs, and Eleanor Taylor, Program Director of Aman Lara. The conversation revolved around a very important topic that is of interest to a lot of people, how a process software application has been able to assist NGOs in managing the Afghan refugee crisis. About Ali Shakil: Ali Shakil is a partner at IBM Consulting in Canada. He leads teams that cut across business strategy, creative design and digital technologies, to solve business problems for clients, and to create innovation. While he primarily focuses on the banking industry, he also helps to lead pro bono initiatives on behalf of IBM Consulting. About Arjun Grewal: Arjun Grewal is the President of ONE9 Capability Labs, a Canadian based innovation hub for all things national security, military and defense. He is also a 19 year Canadian Armed Forces veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan numerous times, and was humbled by the participation of allies in Afghanistan, helping to guide and assist the Canadian Armed Forces with their missions. About Eleanor Taylor: Eleanor Taylor is a veteran who served for 27 years in the Canadian Armed Forces and was released over the last year. She first got involved in the Afghan evacuation effort in June, joining both the advocacy effort and The Afghan Strategic Evacuation Team - a group of NGOs and former retired general officers that stand for the importance of advocacy and evacuation. As a result of her interaction, she became the Program Director of a brand-new NGO called Aman Lara, focused specifically on evacuation, advocacy, and safeguarding the applicant population.
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