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Mind the “GaaP”: Identifying and Solving Solution Traps in Crises

During a crisis, a flood of uncoordinated digital tools from government, NGOs, and volunteers often creates more confusion than clarity. This phenomenon is examined in a new paper, referred to as the “solution trap.”

Drawing on a two-year case study of the digital response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis in Switzerland, the study shows how an abundance of disconnected solutions for information distribution, housing matching, and data exchange ultimately hindered, rather than helped, the crisis response.

The paper, authored by Zoya Katashinskaya, Gianluca Miscione and Liudmila Zavolokina, argues that a Government as a Platform (GaaP) approach can mitigate these traps. By acting as a central orchestrator and providing shared, open infrastructure (like a single information portal or a secure digital ID), a GaaP model can coordinate the efforts of diverse actors and turn chaotic crisis responses into a resilient, scalable, and genuinely helpful ecosystem.

This work will be presented by Zoya Katashinskaya at AOM 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark:

 

The project Government as a Platform is funded in the 2. Project-Call.

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