By: ABW Data Scientist Dr. Claudia Orellana-Rodriguez , ABW Outreach and Event Manager Irina Ioniță, Pipple Data Scientist Sanne van den Bogaart & MapAction Head of Data Science Daniel Soares
The key step of any data and analytics project? Data, data, data, and did we mention collecting the right data? Easier typed than executed! A new partnership between MapAction and Netherlands-based Analytics for a Better World sought to give a new life to data trapped in PDFs – unlocking another data barrier for humanitarian response.
When data sources are in well-structured, actionable, and most importantly accessible formats this task is very simple, otherwise however… it can be as time-consuming as working with Internet Explorer in 2024. So, how to keep data-collection a task that can boost your efficiency (and enthusiasm) for a data and analytics project?
MapAction, Analytics for a Better World, and Pipple joined forces in 2024 for an information extraction pilot project with the aim of speeding-up the data collection for risk projects to see how exactly that can be accomplished.
How does MapAction take action?
MapAction is an international charity based in the United Kingdom specialising in Information Management for Disaster Response and Preparedness. Founded in 2002, MapAction staff and 75+ volunteers and have since deployed to more than 140 emergency responses and 500 preparedness and capacity building missions.
MapAction has a hybrid make-up, with 32 staff members and 75+ highly skilled GIS and data volunteers. In recent years, MapAction has developed new areas of work, including Disaster Risk Reduction, Anticipatory Action, Health and Technology and Innovation. In the last months we have, for example, deployed to emergency responses in The Gambia, Belize, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines, developed risk and anticipatory action projects in Eswatini, Madagascar, Ecuador and Colombia, worked with children vaccination information in several countries in West and Central Africa and supported data quality standards with OCHA.
What is MapAction? A brief animation
Collaborations for Impact
Analytics for a Better World is a Netherlands based non-profit organisation as a joint effort between ORTEC and the University of Amsterdam. Their vision centres analytics as a powerful tool to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Analytics for a Better World brings together the combined strengths of nonprofits, the academic, and the business world around the theme of SDG-related analytics in several activities. To empower nonprofits, they educate their C-level executives, management, and specialists in how to use analytics to further their objectives. To deepen their support for nonprofits in creating impact with analytics, they build analytical roadmaps and jointly deploy analytics projects. Some of their most inspiring collaborations have been with the Ocean CleanUp, the 510 Dutch Red Cross Initiative, and their annual fellowship bringing together NGO workers and data specialists from all over the world. Next to that, they conduct and stimulate applied research on analytics aimed to contribute to the SDGs. Because accessibility of knowledge has an impactful role, they share everything they create as open source through their repository.
Pipple is a data & AI agency based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. They are a team of creative mathematicians and engineers, specialised in solving complex issues through data & AI. Pipple was founded in 2016 and since then has provided more than 200 successful solutions to their customers. They have also had ongoing collaborations with various nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross, the Ocean Clean-Up and more recently with Analytics for a Better World.
Working with the INFORM Subnational Risk Index
Firstly, what exactly is the INFORM Subnational Risk Index?
An INFORM Subnational risk index shows a detailed picture of risk and its components within a single region or country. It covers not only hazards exposure (e.g. earthquakes, floods and conflicts) but also a country’s vulnerabilities, such as diseases prevalence and poverty, as well as its coping capacity.
An INFORM Subnational risk index shows a detailed picture of risk and its components within a single region or country. It covers not only hazards exposure (e.g. earthquakes, floods and conflicts) but also a country’s vulnerabilities, such as diseases prevalence and poverty, as well as its coping capacity.
Since July 2023, in partnership with the European Commission’s INFORM Risk Index, MapAction is working to support national and subnational disaster managers to update or rebuild their disaster forecasts, mitigating tools, and risk atlases. During this period, it has worked on projects in Eswatini, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Niger, Lebanon and Madagascar.
MapAction volunteer Tom Hughes presenting the INFORM methodology during MapEx2024, MapAction’s annual simulation exercise. Photo: MapAction
An important part of an INFORM Risk project is Data Collection on hazards, vulnerability and coping capacity. Because we are looking for subnational data (region, department, district, etc.), we sometimes find this data in a PDF-text report instead of a spreadsheet or a geospatial file. Data often finds its death in PDF-texts due to its format inaccessibility, therefore having a basic tool that allows one to scan big reports in search of tables and/or key indicators would save lots of time.
Data often finds its death in PDF-texts due to its format inaccessibility, therefore having a basic tool that allows one to scan big reports in search of tables and/or key indicators would save lots of time.
A new life for data trapped in PDFs
For this pilot project between MapAction, ABW and Pipple, the target was to develop a tool that takes as input one PDF file and gives as an output one or several spreadsheets with the data indicators per administrative division, plus any relevant metadata. The tool should be able to accommodate multiple languages and be written as a Python script.
This project was expected to have following impacts:
Reduce the time needed to collect data from national or subnational reports,
Enable the exploration of a larger set of reports and sources,
Increase risk model completeness and enable national and regional disaster management agencies to make more informed decisions.
After the initial development phase by ABW and Pipple, MapAction now enters the utilisation phase where their team will adapt the scripts to its workflow and ongoing projects.
Because accessibility of knowledge betters the world, Python scripts and user instructions are open source and available on ABW GitHub public’s repository.
Information management professional development for emergency response agencies and partners is a key part of MapAction’s work. Photo: MapAction
How did we make this happen?
Upon first inspection of the sample PDF files, it became clear that we needed to explore different open-source Python libraries to see how they handled non-standard table structures within the documents.
Both libraries worked well with standard tables, e.g., vertical tables with a single row header and well defined columns; however, when it came to more varied formats, they did not manage to identify the tables correctly.
In continuing our exploration, we tested one more library:
GMFT is a toolkit for converting PDF tables to many formats. It is lightweight, modular, and performant. While still under development, it already works very well and has outperformed the packages tried before. Thus, it was chosen as our final approach in the project. The package works out of the box; however, small alterations were required for better performance for our specific project.
What comes next?
The information extraction code developed over this pilot project will have its first application on MapAction’s support to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional subnational INFORM Risk Index. SADC is composed of 16 countries, home to over 360 millions people and over 200 level-1 administrative divisions, which is the granularity of the model. Given the scale and level of detail of this model, information will be assembled from different national reports and the tool developed during this project will be very useful to process a large amount of data efficiently. The project will run from September 2024 to July 2025 in a collaboration between the SADC DRR unit, MapAction, GIZ and UNDP, building from the experience gathered on recent projects in Eswatini and Madagascar.
The information extraction code developed over this pilot project will have its first application on MapAction’s support to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional subnational INFORM Risk Index.
MapAction team members Daniel Soares and Anne-Marie Frankland, left, in blue t-shirts, together with representatives from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the National Disaster Management Agency of Eswatini, and other Eswatini agencies and ministries during the INFORM handover workshop in December 2023. Photo: MapAction.
Better Together – MapAction & Analytics for a Better World
We hope this first pilot project will be the beginning of a long-term collaboration between MapAction and Analytics for a Better World. Both organisations share the same core values of improving lives and reducing suffering through data and technical expertise. This project speaks directly to ABW’s vision of connecting the private sector with the non-profit one, with Pipple’s Data Scientist, Sanne van den Bogaart, playing a key role in the development of the tool.
We hope this first pilot project will be the beginning of a long-term collaboration between MapAction and Analytics for a Better World.
In June 2024, MapAction held its own annual disaster simulation exercise, MapEx, in the Peak District in the UK. This was the 18th and largest ever edition, featuring partners from the British Red Cross, UN agencies and more. More than 100 MapAction staff, volunteers, partners, donors and observers took part in the two-day ‘emergency datathon’ simulation, with some teams working on anticipatory action components for the first time.
After the success of 2023’s edition, the ABW annual conference had its 2024 edition on May 14th. At this conference, an array of speakers and panellists representing ABW’s key stakeholders was gathered: nonprofits, researchers, and companies. Together, we reflected on the impact and progress of ABW, sharing achievements, and outlining future plans. Engaging discussions delved into pressing topics in analytics, including the challenges posed by AI.
In times of crisis, timely and accurate geospatial data is crucial for effective humanitarian response. This GIS Day 2024, we discuss a new project: an automated data pipeline to streamline the collection and preparation of essential geospatial datasets for emergencies. By replicating the data scramble process our GIS teams typically perform during emergencies, the MapAction Automated Data Pipeline aims to expedite the delivery of critical information to those who need it most.
By: Evangelos Diakatos, MapAction Data Engineer
By automating the acquisition of these datasets, the pipeline aims to improve efficiency by reducing the time required to gather and prepare data during emergencies. It enhances accuracy by providing up-to-date and consistent datasets for mapping and analysis, enabling the GIS team to focus on critical analysis and map production rather than manual data collection. This supports a more rapid and effective humanitarian response.
Data Sources
The pipeline integrates data from several key sources. One of the primary sources is the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), a platform hosted by OCHA that offers a wide range of humanitarian datasets. HDX provides access to critical information necessary for planning and coordinating emergency responses.
Another important source is Google Earth Engine (GEE), a cloud-based platform that facilitates the processing of satellite imagery and other geospatial datasets. Additionally, the pipeline retrieves data from OpenStreetMap (OSM), a collaborative project aimed at creating a free, editable map of the world. OSM provides detailed geographical information, including roads, buildings, and points of interest.
Figure: Example of baseline map made by MapAction on past emergency responses. Our new data pipeline aims to automate the acquisition and processing of data used in these maps, such as administrative boundaries, transport infrastructure and geographic features
The datasets collected and processed by the pipeline are mainly the data needed in the first moments after the onset of an emergency. They describe the country or region’s situation before the emergency and form the baseline of our maps, which will be enriched with situational information as the emergency develops. One can mention for example administrative boundaries, geographic features such as rivers and lakes, population distribution and infrastructure (e.g., roads, airports, hospital).
Technology stack
All of these datasets are gathered mainly through APIs. APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are sets of rules that allow different software applications to communicate with each other. By interfacing with various APIs, the pipeline is able to fetch the latest data directly from the source. This ensures that the information used in analyses is both up-to-date and consistent, providing a reliable foundation for emergency response efforts.
Pipeline architecture showing the different steps, from data acquisition to storage.
The MapAction data pipeline is constructed using a combination of Python and Bash scripts. Python is a versatile programming language known for its readability and extensive libraries, making it ideal for data processing tasks. Bash scripts facilitate the automation of command-line operations in a Linux environment.
To ensure portability and consistency across different computing environments, the pipeline operates within a Linux Docker container. Docker is a platform that uses containers to package applications and their dependencies, allowing for seamless deployment across various systems .
Process orchestration is handled by Apache Airflow, an open-source workflow management platform. It enables the scheduling and monitoring of workflows, managing task dependencies, and ensuring that data processing steps occur in the correct order.
Next steps
The next phase for the MapAction Automated Data Pipeline involves rigorous validation of the results and testing during actual emergency responses. By integrating the pipeline into live operations, we can assess its effectiveness and make necessary adjustments. Initially, the tool will be made available for internal use within MapAction, allowing our GIS team to benefit from its capabilities while we continue to refine its functionality.
In the future, we aim to adopt an event-driven pipeline approach, enabling automatic initiation of data processing in response to specific triggers such as GDACS disaster alerts. Additionally, we plan to develop an interactive dashboard that allows for manual configuration of pipeline runs, giving users greater control over data collection parameters.
Ultimately, after thorough internal testing and refinement, we hope to make the pipeline available to the broader humanitarian community. By sharing this tool publicly, we aim to support other organisations in enhancing their emergency response efforts through improved data accessibility and efficiency.
MapAction’s work in humanitarian response is funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and the German Federal Foreign Office’s Programme for Humanitarian Assistance.
Understanding the impacts of flooding in cities is a complex and multifaceted issue, influenced by competing environmental, social, economic, and political factors. Lack of comprehensive data and information on flood events exacerbates the issue, hindering the ability of cities and their residents to effectively prepare for and respond to disasters. No one understands the importance of information in emergency preparedness better than MapAction. This is a principle which underpins my research, leading to an academic partnership between MapAction and I.
I’m a PhD student in geospatial systems at Newcastle University researching flood risk in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. My research seeks to integrate spatial and community-driven data to evidence flood risk in urban contexts. A key component of the research is collaborating with local communities, as they are the bearers of the consequences of flooding. The goal of this partnership is to have more agency in shaping the research: for them to share their lived experiences.
Cartagena – official population just under one million – is located on the low-lying plains of the Caribbean coast and experiences a tropical climate with intense rainfall; factors which make it susceptible to flooding due to rising sea level and heavy precipitation. Flooding is worsened in Cartagena by issues such as increased rainfall intensity and duration, due to climate change, deforestation of mangroves, rapid (and sometimes) unplanned urbanisation. All this is compounded by inadequate drainage systems. As a city that experiences recurring flooding, this is a big problem as it causes daily disruption, damage to homes and infrastructure, loss of lives and livelihoods, economic losses, and stress amongst other health concerns. Just last year alone, 15,000 families were impacted by one extreme flood event.
Putting at-risk people on the map
During the 2023 rainy season, I spent 10 weeks in Cartagena with a placement at local university Universidad Tecnológica de Bolivar (UTB). During this time, participatory mapping sessions were carried out with three neighbourhoods to better understand the local impacts of flooding. These sessions displayed areas of the neighbourhoods that were at risk of flooding, which are not currently recognised in official flood risk maps. Due to this omission, these communities are not supported by flood risk interventions and mitigation strategies. Putting at-risk people and places on the map is crucial to disaster preparedness because without identifying the problems, effective responses to flood events are impossible.
Sessions displayed areas of the neighbourhoods that were at risk of flooding, which are not currently recognised in official flood risk maps. Due to this omission, these communities are not supported by flood risk interventions and mitigation strategies. Putting at-risk people and places on the map is crucial to disaster preparedness because without identifying the problems, effective responses to flood events are impossible.
The participatory mapping sessions also highlighted key flood impacts such as vehicle accidents, accidents due to open manhole covers or potholes, damage to infrastructure and property, loss of life, material goods and income. All community groups argued that the impacts are exacerbated due to excessive waste and the lack of maintenance of the canals. I also spoke with researchers and different departments within the local mayor’s office that echoed these sentiments. These discussions provided insights into the city’s complexities from various stakeholders’ perspectives and led me to discover previously overlooked data.
I will be going back to Cartagena again to build on the research from 2023, incorporating the concerns raised by communities during the mapping sessions. Citizens will be able to collect information about location, flood level, damaged infrastructure and waste via an app. Collected data will be integrated with other spatial data to build better evidence around flooding in the city. A paper survey will be available for anyone unable to use technology, but training will be provided to everyone. The overall findings of this research will demonstrate community exposure to flooding, and this will be shared back with research stakeholders, including the mayor’s office, to support measures in flood preparedness and planning.
This research is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the CDT in Geospatial Systems at Newcastle University. Additional fieldwork funding has been awarded and is supported by the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Research Awards, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). The principal researcher is Ambreen Masud. Research supervisors are Maria Valasia Peppa, Jon Mills, Cat Button, Yady Tatiana Solano-Correa, with industry supervision from MapAction.
MapAction received support for this partnership from the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) as part of a broader project on urban risk management.
As we celebrate World Humanitarian Day, a handful of MapAction members reflect on why they continue to use their skills for the good of humanitarian relief.
Tiago Canelas
Maps resonate deeply with people. They see their stories in them, and that sense of ownership is empowering. In times of crisis, people seek hope and control over their future.
Tiago Canelas.
For many years, I’ve worked in global health, developing spatial models and insights to improve lives in low and middle-income countries. One thing became clear along the way: maps resonate deeply with people. They see their stories in them, and that sense of ownership is empowering. In times of crisis, people seek hope and control over their future. That’s why I joined MapAction, to make a broader impact by using the power of maps to give those most in need a voice and a path to a brighter future.
Jiri Klic
Throughout history people of every generation have faced their own challenges, and I genuinely believe that the UN SDGs are the greatest and most important challenge of our lifetime.
My motivation to get involved with the humanitarian sector is deeply rooted in my passion for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Throughout history people of every generation have faced their own challenges, and I genuinely believe that the UN SDGs are the greatest and most important challenge of our lifetime. That being said, I have been inspired to join MapAction by my great friend and former colleague Cate Seale, who is also one of the MapAction members. Hopefully, my transparency on the subject of personal approach will serve as an inspiration to others.
Lavern Ryan
I will never forget how I felt at that moment. The moment that I had just received confirmation that I was being deployed to support the relief efforts for Hurricane Beryl. There were so many emotions that overpowered me.
I chose to become a Map Action volunteer because I wanted to do more. I wanted to be in a better position to offer assistance and use my skills in geospatial technologies to better contribute to humanitarian efforts during a disaster. In 2017, when Hurricane Irma and Maria hit the neighbouring Caribbean Islands, I felt helpless and hopeless. This time around however, I was better prepared and well placed to say yes without hesitation. Brighten the corner, where you are is a song by Ina D. Ogdon that I identify with and live by. MapAction has afforded me the opportunity to help my Caribbean brothers and sisters in the best way I know how. I am grateful also to my family and friends who have supported me along this journey.
I will never forget how I felt at that moment. The moment that I had just received confirmation that I was being deployed to support the relief efforts for Hurricane Beryl. There were so many emotions that overpowered me. I was happy yet at the same time sad. I was excited, yet at the same time overwhelmed. I was anxious, yet I was calm.
I had not long returned home to Montserrat on the heels of completing MapAction’s Annual Disaster Simulation Exercise in the UK: MapEx. I felt prepared and ready. As a Caribbean-based MapAction Volunteer, I previously remotely deployed where I responded to the 2021 Volcanic eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This deployment however was different. I was being deployed in the field.
Lavern at MapEx2024. Photo: MapAction
As a Caribbean resident, I have grown accustomed to getting prepared for the hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through to November 30. Hurricane Beryl was the earliest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record! Beginning with the letter “B”, as its name implies, it was the second named storm for the year, but still the first hurricane for 2024. When Hurricane Beryl made landfall on July 1st, the damage and casualties were widespread. Hurricane Beryl caused catastrophic damage on Grenada’s northern islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique and on several of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ southern islands, such as Union Island and Canouan.
Uncertain of exactly which island I would be deployed to, I travelled from Montserrat to Barbados to report to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). MapAction and CDEMA have a strong working relationship, collaboration and partnership. My other two (2) fellow MapAction Team Members went ahead to St. Vincent to offer support there. I boarded the Barbados Coast Guard Vessel, along with a team from the United Nations Disaster and Coordination (UNDAC) team and several Defense Force groups from neighbouring islands. We set sail for Carriacou. The pictures on social media did not encapsulate the magnitude of devastation which caught my eyes on Carriacou. Everything was totally devastated! I tried to imagine what the residents of this island endured during the passage of the storm.
Damage to buildings in Carriacou caused by Hurricane Beryl. Photo: Lavern Ryan
The days that followed saw me working closely with the team at the National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA). I assisted in producing maps such as: Humanitarian Relief Effort, Active Emergency Shelter Population and Pop-Up Shelters, Logistic structures and Structural Damage Assessment on Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Indigo Brownhall
This is what motivates me: the drive to support disasters and humanitarian events straight after, using GIS and mapping to get aid to those who need it most – while supporting coordination and bringing the power of a map to a response.
Indigo Brownhall (left) in Eswatini for MapAction.
In 2019, I was lucky enough to visit and study the Upper Bhote Koshi River on the border between China and Nepal, staring at a landslide that had removed an entire village off the side of the mountain, destroyed the only access road, and resulted in displacement and casualties of many residents. Standing there, I could only hope that the research that I was conducting would support the development of the area’s future environmental resilience. This experience caused me to reflect on the impact that support work in the immediate aftermath of an event could have on communities’ short and long-term outcomes.
This inspired my ever-strengthening interest and love for the role of geospatial and earth in both sustainability, natural disasters and the wider humanitarian sector. But most importantly, how as an industry we can support communities both in the short and long term.
MapAction aims to provide this and I truly believe that every single staff member and volunteer has this in mind. This is what motivates me: the drive to support disasters and humanitarian events straight after, using GIS and mapping to get aid to those who need it most – while supporting coordination and bringing the power of a map to a response.
Elena Field
I decided to get involved as I have always wanted to use the skills I had to help people. MapAction is a fantastic organisation with dedicated people who share that drive to help others.
MapAction member Elena Field.
My main driver is learning new things and putting that learning into practice to help other people. The training MapAction run throughout the year and the simulation exercises all feed into an atmosphere of constant improvement in how we can help others better.
For me the most impactful experience I’ve had so far has to be watching a debrief in the Hurricane Beryl response where the lead responders used maps we produced to guide their decision making. It really felt then that the all the training and simulation exercises had paid off seeing our work helping people in real time.
Since 2022, MapAction, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) and the University of Georgia, Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS) have been working on strengthening data quality for what are referred to as Common Operational Datasets (COD): ‘best available’ shared datasets that ensure consistency and simplify the discovery and exchange of key data among humanitarian organisations.
Bad data equals more human suffering. Each time a disaster or a health epidemic strikes, data is at the heart of the first response. Yet public data is often full of gaps. If a population census is old, inaccurate or non-existent, people fall off the map. If a certain area is contested and the admin boundaries are disputed, people pay the price. Data is crucial to estimate people’s vulnerability and wellbeing in an emergency.
Why data quality is important
People overlooked due to data gaps will struggle to gain access to emergency services such as food, water, housing, health or parachute financial aid packages. Emergency service providers need good data and data management tools to make the best decisions under extreme pressure.
People overlooked due to data gaps will struggle to gain access to emergency services such as food, water, housing, health or parachute financial aid packages.
Poor data quality can undermine the effectiveness of evidence-based decision-making in the humanitarian sector. The path to improvement starts with identifying the challenges.
Meet MapAction Head of Data Science Daniel Soares.
Humanitarian data highway stakeholders convene
In April 2024, MapAction hosted a panel with other organisations working to build ‘the humanitarian data highway’ to address the challenges on data quality. The panel was hosted at Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) in Geneva, Switzerland, and featured panellists from OCHA’s Centre for Humanitarian Data, Flowminder, ACAPS, Impact, CartONG, Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT) and Start Network.
Meet MapAction Head of Data Science Daniel Soares.
The panel, titled ‘Data quality challenges and their impact on the humanitarian response cycle‘, explored data quality for emergency response, preparedness and anticipatory action. All phases of a data project were covered, from data collection to visualisation and accessibility but also the specifics of working with open data and quality frameworks. The panellists also noted that limited resources for COD-related maintenance projects make it hard to fill this gap.
Data analytics ecosystem
More data is needed; although not all data is good data. If we don’t compile and process data by age or gender we’ll fail to understand the specific needs of women and mothers; miscalculating the trajectory of a storm or its geographic boundaries could mean communities remain displaced, stranded and exposed. If we can’t automate the proximity of communities to vital services and support mechanisms our partners cannot maximise the impact of emergency aid delivery. These are just some of many considerations that affect the quality of data, and ultimately, the quality of disaster response reduction efforts.
If we don’t compile and process data by age or gender we’ll fail to understand the specific needs of women and mothers; miscalculating the trajectory of a storm or its geographic boundaries could mean communities remain displaced, stranded and exposed. If we can’t automate the proximity of communities to vital services and support mechanisms our partners cannot maximise the impact of emergency aid delivery.
Within this context, MapAction has been working together with OCHA and the University of Georgia Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS) on data quality analysis for the Common Operational Datasets (COD) for Administrative Boundaries (COD-AB).
Common Operational Datasets, or COD, are authoritative reference datasets needed to support operations and decision-making for all actors in a humanitarian response. COD are ‘best available’ datasets that ensure consistency and simplify the discovery and exchange of key data. The data is typically geo-spatially linked using a coordinate system (especially administrative boundaries) and has unique geographic identification codes (P-codes).
These data sets are often derived from data collected by local authorities and international partners to ensure quality, but most vitally, local ownership. COD can be collected on administrative boundaries, population and more.
LEARN MORE: Still confused as to what a COD is? This brief song should help!
After a first discussion with OCHA and ITOS partners in 2022, a preliminary methodology proposal has been developed by MapAction to assess the geospatial quality forCommon Operational Data-Administrative Boundaries (COD-AB). COD-AB sets can become outdated or less effective if they are not regularly updated. A country’s administrative boundaries can be redrawn more than a dozen times in a tumultuous year; an outdated data set becomes a means of exclusion.
COD-AB sets can become outdated or less effective if they are not regularly updated. A country’s administrative boundaries can be redrawn more than a dozen times a tumultuous year; an outdated data set becomes a means of exclusion.
With this partnership with OCHA and ITOS we aim to create a quantitative assessment mechanism that enables the prioritisation of work to update or enhance existing COD-AB data sets. The expected output is a quality index for each COD-AB data set based on tests for features (geographical, metadata, etc). A diverse team of MapAction volunteers has been formed to tackle this project, with GIS, data engineering, data science and software volunteers.
How does this partnership work?
ITOS analyses and enhances the quality of COD-AB countries proposed by OCHA. The recent discussions have raised, in particular, the need for support on a prioritisation queue. This queue would combine a geospatial quality index and risk index per country in order to help OCHA to select priority countries and ITOS to focus their high level analysis on the most important countries.
Blossoming InnovationHub
As a fledgling branch of any organisation, our InnovationHub is growing wings and beginning to expand its focus areas. The number of partnerships with other organisations working on similar goals is growing.
As climate scientists continue to predict that natural disasters will increase in severity in the coming years, our goal is to make sure no one is left behind and falls off the map. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” wrote Arthur C. Clarke. Only by pushing the boundaries and committing resources can we come up with ‘magic’ models and frameworks to combat the climate emergency and mitigate seasonal hazards and conflicts. Our InnovationHub marks our sustainable commitment to that cause.
MapAction would like to acknowledge the generous contribution that Max Malynowsky is making to the COD Quality project. Max has dedicated years to contributing to administrative boundaries in the humanitarian sector. His multiple projects, hosted at fieldmaps.io, include significant work towards making it easier to access global boundary data sets, including COD-AB.
Background: About MapAction and building the ‘humanitarian data highway’
There are dozens of agencies and organisations working in what is known as the ‘humanitarian data analytics’ sector: essentially the delivery of data sets, information management systems and in MapAction’s case, geospatial data and expertise, as well as anticipatory action risk models, applied to disaster reduction. They range from large UN agencies to small local civil society organisations. The International Organization for Migration Displacement Tracking Matrix alone brings together 7,000 data collectors and over 600 technical experts serving in over 80 countries.
Since MapAction’s inception in 2002, the organisation has mapped for people in crises in more than 150 emergencies. We have created 1000s of maps used by emergency service providers.
In 2022, MapAction launched an InnovationHub: to tackle some of the biggest challenges confronting data scientists, data analysts and humanitarian responders working with data in emergency relief. We still don’t have all the answers, but we believe that the InnovationHub will find solutions by posing the right questions. Our work is increasingly in anticipatory action: supporting countries to co-build risk models, with the right data, to help mitigate future hazards.
In May 2024, MapAction, together with USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, the Ecuadorian Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR) and the Decentralised Autonomous Government (GAD) of Manta, held a workshop in Manta – a coastal city in western Ecuador – to pilot an urban risk model based on the INFORM RISK INDEX methodology. The model provides disaster response managers and anticipatory action planners with a tool to understand the risk before, during and after disasters for specific urban communities. The workshop participants were civil society organisations working in the disaster risk reduction sector in Manta.
From June 7th to 9th, MapAction conducted its largest ever disaster simulation event with approximately 100 staff, volunteers, partners and observers taking part. The 48-hour simulation, held in the Peak DIstrict National Park, included – for the first time this year – elements on anticipatory action. Volunteers are split into teams and forced to process and visualise incoming data requests from various agencies. The resulting ‘map walls’ give decision-makers a clearer insight into affected communities and the impact of the disaster.
MapEx is designed to strengthen coordination among partners and volunteers and ensures MapAction’s teams, especially new volunteers, are fully immersed into the demands of managing and visualising information for decision-makers during a humanitarian crisis or while building an anticipatory action risk model. Watch the video to find out more.
MapAction team members are supporting the Belize national disaster management agency NEMO to get a clearer understanding of the extent and impact of wildfires that continue to spread through southern and western Belize, causing damage to infrastructure, crops, land and livelihoods.
MapAction’s Edith Lendak works with Director of Toledo District Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Gustavo Requena (right) and NEMO GIS Officer Luwin Tzib (left) to confirm the location of local community settlements in fire-impacted districts. Photo: MapAction
Drought and a lack of rainfall have caused severe ongoing wildfires in the Central American country of Belize. As of May 28th, 10,000 hectares of land and 200 homes had been destroyed, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). Damages as of end of May 2024 totalled more than $8 million.
The response to the wildfires is being coordinated by Belize’s national disaster response agency, the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO), one of 19 CDEMA members. CDEMA, a long-time MapAction partner, requested MapAction’s support to assist local authorities in getting a clearer understanding as to the extent of the crisis.
MapAction volunteer members Sam Gandhi, a GIS specialist, and Edith Lendak – who works for green energy company Orsted – are in Belize assisting the Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and disaster assessment teams out of the National Emergency Management Organisation’s (NEMO) various country offices. MapAction volunteer member Indigo Brownhall, a researcher with the Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory (SGNL) at University College London (UCL), is providing remote support.
MaAction volunteer member Sam Gandhi.
The team’s focus will be on the worst affected areas: the southern region of Toledo, before moving north to focus on Cayo District, where the country’s capital, Belmopan, is situated.
“This shows the effectiveness of our partnership with CDEMA,” says Darren Dovey, head of emergency response for MapAction. “We were able to quickly understand their needs and advise that sending a MapAction team to Belize would be the most effective way to support them, working with their own GIS teams and supported by the wider MapAction membership remotely,” adds Dovey.
Head of Emergency Response Darren Dovey.
The maps produced so far cover a range of key data points: the baseline population in each district, disaggregated by age, sex and gender; key ecosystems of Belize, as well as landcover per area. More maps will be created for decision-makers in the next few days and weeks.
MapAction helps decision-makers get an overview of an emergency by mapping the key data about the extent and impact on communities, land and infrastructure. This helps emergency responders act faster, more efficiently and provide support to at-risk communities.
Each map is created to help decision-makers act faster and more accurately. Some maps are key to search-and-rescue operations – knowing where to send rescue personnel, which areas have been searched and which have not. Other maps might help plot a path for emergency aid to those who need it most, using the fastest and most accessible routes. Another map might outline where people are moving; how a wildfire is spreading or where the largest human need is.
For more than a decade, MapAction has provided support to Madagascar’s national disaster management agency, managing and visualising key data to support decision-makers, during tropical storms and cyclones. Now the focus is on strengthening the island’s preparedness for any future disasters. This includes a nationwide review of overall information management capacity and gaps, training of stakeholders, tools to automate processes and a data-driven anticipatory action plan to reduce future suffering.
MapAction’s Head of Data science, Daniel Soares, at a workshop in 2024 in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
“Those who have good preparedness will be safe from danger.” So reads the maxim of Madagascar’s national disaster management agency (Bureau National de Gestion des Risques et des Catastrophes – BNGRC), whose job is to develop and implement contingency plans for natural disasters.
No easy feat. Madagascar is one of the 10 poorest countries in Africa, meaning resources for this kind of work are stretched. Chronic malnutrition affects nearly 40 percent of children, according to data from the World Food Programme (WFP). More than 90 percent of the 28 million people who live in Africa’s largest island subsist on less than $3.10 p/day, according to the same source. Regular natural disasters add to the chronic food insecurity.
“The south of Madagascar is affected by a recurrent drought and the southeast is prone to recurrent cyclones and flooding,” states a report by WFP. “In these regions, up to 1.31 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity.”
The BNGRC and partner agencies have a huge challenge to maximise resources for at risk-communities.
In recent years, with natural disasters on the rise due to the climate emergency, humanitarian data use is changing. With the right understanding of risk and data-backed mitigation scenarios, disaster managers and partners in countries on the frontlines of the climate emergency, like Madagascar, can reduce future suffering. Anticipatory actions help save lives by ensuring local disaster managers have the data, tools and capacity they need to mitigate the worst effects of FUTURE disasters. A fire extinguisher puts out fires; an alarm helps prevent the worst flames.
Data v. future disasters
For several years MapAction has been helping local disaster agencies to adopt the specialist and complex data standards that are required to use anticipatory action tools. This helps them access vital early funding based on pre-agreed ‘triggers’ signalled by data. These tools combine local knowledge of risks with things like climate data, enabling money and resources to be used to protect at-risk communities shortly before a disaster strikes.
In 2023 MapAction created a dedicated Anticipatory Action team and started contributing to the European Union designed INFORM Subnational Risk models, initially in Eswatini and most recently in Madagascar. MapAction’s Daniel Soares and Piet Gerrits co-led a consultation workshop with more than 40 stakeholders from UN agencies, government, academic institutions and civil society organisations in Madagascar in early 2024, in a process co-led by BNGRC, UNDP and UNICEF.
The main outcome was the agreement on the so-called Madagascar INFORM Framework and the initial data collection. In total, 195 indicators – which cover hazards and exposure, vulnerability and coping capacity – were identified, with 88 flagged as very relevant. These are all standard indicators for disaster scenarios. UNICEF also facilitated the inclusion of indicators designed to identify at-risk children.
The data modelling work was preceded by extensive mapping of the disaster response landscape, as well as professional development events for stakeholders in Madagascar, to strengthen the country’s overall capacity to use geospatial and information management tools.
In 2022, MapAction decided to increase its focus on Madagascar, resulting in a spate of new programmes. That same year, MapAction joined Start Network, a network of 90 local and international organisations whose “mission is to create a new era of humanitarian action that will save even more lives.”
In 2023, MapAction conducted a training programme for staff from Start Network member organisations in Madagascar: team members from our organisation provided hazard data analysis and mapping training for tech representatives from civil society organisations within Start Network.
Since then, longtime MapAction team member Ant Scott has supported Start Network in developing processes to allow the Vulnerability Assessment Tool (video demo) to be shared and published online. The tool was developed in Madagascar, designed for GIS (Geospatial Information Systems, or mapping/spatial analysis tools) professionals at civil society organisations and local disaster managers. It’s a predictive model to understand which districts are most at risk in a cyclone, storm or hurricane.
A screenshot from the Vulnerability Assessment Tool.
This vital information helps decision-makers to get an overview of a crisis: the places and communities most affected or exposed; the threats to health, wellbeing and security. The work MapAction has been supporting, using the Felt mapping platform, allows the results of the tool to swiftly be disseminated online and combined with other data in a way that gives easy access to everyone involved.
Other work has focused on identifying strengths and weaknesses in the country’s overall information management and geospatial sector. MapAction’s Anticipatory Action Analyst, Orla Desmond, met with dozens of stakeholders from government, NGOs and the academic sector in early 2024 in the Madagascar capital Antananarivo, part of a comprehensive ‘mapping’ of the disaster stakeholder landscape. The emphasis was on GIS strengths and weaknesses and anticipatory action. Discussions were held about GIS data sources, the quality and accessibility of data, and the types of data required by organisations carrying out anticipatory actions. Opportunities for improvements were then shared with Start Network in Madagascar as part of a 27-page comprehensive report.
MapAction’s Orla Desmond at a meeting with stakeholders and partners in Madagascar.
Next steps
Our team also conducted training in parallel on developing baseline maps in a crisis – Who, What, Where maps (known in the industry as the ‘3Ws’) – a fundamental trio for any decision-maker in an emergency.
Yet our work in Madagascar is far from finished. GIS consultant Ant Scott and data scientist Carola Martens are returning to the island in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on 17th June 2024 to conduct further training and hands-on workshops in GIS and data management skills. These will be for key personnel identified during the research and other local staff involved in disaster management and anticipatory action planning. The impact will be to strengthen the country’s overall response and planning capacity for disasters.
Stay tuned for more risk models
Meanwhile, MapAction’s work building INFORM RISK Subnational models – data sets to mitigate hazards and disasters and protect at risk-communities – continues worldwide.
“The partnership between INFORM and MapAction greatly increases our capacity to support countries to develop INFORM Subnational risk models,” says Andrew Thow, Programme Manager at the UN, an INFORM partner. “These models help countries understand their risks and inform planning and programming to better prevent and prepare for crises and disasters,” adds Thow.
(EN) MapAction works with disaster management authorities and networks worldwide to strengthen data quality and humanitarian information management preparedness. If you would like to discuss a potential partnership, please contact our Head of Programmes and Partnerships Marina Kobzeva: mkobzeva@mapaction.org
(FR) MapAction travaille avec les autorités et les réseaux de gestion des catastrophes dans différentes parties du monde pour renforcer la qualité des données et la préparation à la GI humanitaire. Si vous souhaitez discuter d’un partenariat potentiel, veuillez contacter notre responsable des programmes et des partenariats Marina Kobzeva: mkobzeva@mapaction.org
(PT) A MapAction trabalha com autoridades e redes de gestão de desastres em diferentes partes do mundo para fortalecer a qualidade dos dados e a preparação para a gestão da informação humanitária. Para discutir uma possível parceria, entre em contato com nossa Chefe de Programas e Parcerias, Marina Kobzeva: mkobzeva@mapaction.org
Left: Head of Geospatial Services Gemma Davies. Right: Geospatial Coordinator Charlotte Moss. Image: MapAction.
International Girls in ICT Day, celebrated every April, aims to celebrate female leadership in ICT. “Women are nearly absent from software development, engineering, technology research, academia as well as at the highest levels of policy making. They also tend to leave science and technology jobs at higher rates than men,” states the commemorative day’s UN website. MapAction is nevertheless home to dozens of women staff and volunteers who are software developers, academics, data scientists or geospatial engineers to mention but a few specialisations. We spoke with two: Head of Geospatial Services Gemma Davies and Geospatial Coordinator Charlotte Moss about their passion for geospatial technology and maps.
GEMMA DAVIES, HEAD OF GEOSPATIAL SERVICES
Q: What made you want to get into working with geospatial information systems?
Gemma: I’ve always loved logical problem solving and when I was first introduced to GIS at university I realised GIS was the perfect way to apply my logical analytical skills to the geography I was interested in.
Q: What is your official job title at MapAction?
Gemma: Head of Geospatial Services.
Q: What have you been working on recently?
Gemma: Most recently I have been working on improvements to our GIS training offer that will help equip people working in organisations like national disaster management agencies to make use of GIS in their work.
Q:What’s next on the horizon?
Gemma: In addition to training development, next on the horizon includes working with our innovation and technology team to automate consistent sourcing and processing of the datasets we most frequently use for emergency response.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
Gemma: The job is really varied and you get to apply GIS very practically in a way that may positively impact people’s lives.
GIS is a powerful tool that aids understanding of the world around us and enhances decision-making. Channelling this power in a way that uses the tools to benefit potentially at-risk populations is so important.
Q: Why does GIS4Good matter?
Gemma: GIS is a powerful tool that aids understanding of the world around us and enhances decision making. Channelling this power in a way that uses the tools to benefit potentially at-risk populations is so important.
Three things you love about maps.
Gemma: They provide a virtual insight into places you are yet to explore; they bring information to life in new ways and they can help inform important decision-making.
READ ALSO: She survived a volcanic eruption and helped rebuild her island afterwards. Meet Lavern Ryan, a MapAction volunteer and GIS aficionado.
CHARLOTTE MOSS: GEOSPATIAL COORDINATOR
Q: What made you want to get into working with geospatial information systems?
Charlotte: I have always loved maps. As a child I used to spend hours drawing treasure maps. Now I get to solve actual geospatial problems using GIS software rather than pencils!
Q: What is your official job title at MapAction?
Charlotte: I work as a Geospatial Coordinator at MapAction.
As a child I used to spend hours drawing treasure maps. Now I get to solve actual geospatial problems using GIS software rather than pencils!
Q: What have you been working on recently?
Charlotte: I work on MapAction’s health programme. We are currently working on an initiative with UNICEF and CartONG to help ministries in six West and Central African countries use geospatial techniques to assist them in providing vaccination and birth registration services.
Charlotte: I’m off to Côte d’Ivoire to discuss the needs of the teams there working on the project.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
Charlotte: I get to travel and meet people from all over the world. Maps are always a fascinating way of communicating.
Q: Why does GIS4Good matter?
Charlotte: I have developed my GIS skills in other areas of work and it feels great to be able to give back what I have learnt to humanitarian projects.
Three things you love about maps.
Charlotte: The details, the number of ways you can conceptualise a problem and the colours.
In 2022, MapAction, at the request of longtime partner UN OCHA, provided GIS and data support and training to The Gambian National Disaster Management Agency. Watch the video below to find out why the mission mattered and what the impact was.
This work is made possible with funds from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.
This weekend a total of sixteen new specialist data volunteers will be welcomed into MapAction’s volunteer cohort. It is the largest ever single intake by the expanding UK-based humanitarian mapping and information-troubleshooting charity.
MapAction staff and volunteers at an induction course for new volunteers this weekend. Photo: MapAction.
The new volunteers come from a panoply of sectors: healthcare, energy and higher education, to mention but a few. They will support MapAction’s work in emergency response, anticipatory action and health programmes, as well as developing data tools for training and innovation.
“Our volunteers are not just skilled professionals; they are also compassionate and selfless people who generously commit their time, expertise, and energy to supporting disaster-affected communities around the world,” says Marina Kobzeva, director of programmes and partnerships at MapAction. “Their expertise in mapping and data analysis plays a crucial role in informing humanitarian response efforts during emergencies, enabling aid agencies to deliver assistance more effectively and efficiently. Their impact however extends far beyond the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Our volunteers are also deeply committed to building resilience and empowering communities to better prepare for future crises,” adds Marina.
MapAction volunteers are often data specialists who want to make the crossover to humanitarian work.
“I wanted to join MapAction because I wanted to actively be part of humanitarian solutions to disasters,” says software developer Elena Jung, who works for Octopus Energy.
Elena is one of six women who joins in this recruitment window, together with Monika Patel, who works with Ordnance Survey.
“Throughout my career, I’ve successfully worked with and led many teams internationally and nationally delivering operational goals and products; gaining invaluable experience in data analysis, disaster/incident response, GIS and much more,” says Monika, who now brings this experience to support MapAction’s work.
Data scientist Harry Matchette-Downes works in healthcare but has also worked as “a freelance cartographer and geospatial data scientist, using skills learnt during my physics degree and seismology PhD. I’ve always enjoyed field mapping, and I want to do good, so that’s why I joined MapAction,” says Harry. Land surveyor and GIS professor at University College London (UCL) Pippa Cowles says she was inspired to join by two of her students who are currently also MapAction volunteers.
New volunteers talk with MapAction staff on Friday March 15th, 2024. Photo: MapAction
The MapAction Induction Course, spread over a March weekend each year, is the beginning of a six-month training programme that culminates in November: it prepares new volunteers to be deployable to the sites of major disasters or as support GIS or data officers in humanitarian contexts. The training covers tech and humanitarian protocols and includes several simulation exercises.
She survived a volcanic eruption and helped rebuild her island afterwards. Meet Lavern Ryan, a MapAction volunteer and GIS aficionado.
Lavern Ryan in Cottesmore, UK, for HEAT training. Photo: Lavern Ryan
‘Be the change that you want to see in the world’ is a quote often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi but on International Women’s Day 2024, MapAction volunteer Lavern Ryan says it captures her thoughts. “I would like to encourage women and girls worldwide to do just the same. Whatever one sets their mind to, it can be accomplished with strength, determination and prayer,” she adds.
Lavern is the living proof of her own words; her story reads like a triumph of willpower over circumstances. In 1995, Lavern was displaced from her home island of Montserrat due to a volcanic eruption.
Displaced by volcano
“I remember it like it was yesterday although it was 28 years ago,” Lavern recalled recently in a podcast with GeoMob. Lavern went on to recollect how many people on the Caribbean island of Montserrat tried to head north amidst the “chaos and panic” to get away from the erupting Soufriere Hills volcano. The current population of Montserrat is approximately 5000 people.
Lavern first moved to Antigua, the closest island to Montserrat, but found misfortune to have travelled with her. In September 1995, the Category 4 Hurricane Luis struck Antigua, meaning Lavern had now experienced two major natural disasters within three months. Lavern was 13 at the time. She went on to complete her secondary school education in Antigua and then a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science in Trinidad and Tobago. She later also studied at Edinburgh University and the University of Dundee in Scotland.
GIS to the rescue
When Lavern did return to Montserrat a few years later, the southern part of the island – still inaccessible today – was covered in pyroclastic flows. Her newfound skills in GIS and remote sensing were serendipitous however, “to identify where the best places were to occupy the northern part of the island.” Timely work as the volcano has continued to erupt since 1995, making half of the island uninhabitable.
Since 2002, Lavern has been the GIS Manager for the Government of Montserrat. She works closely with the Island’s disaster management authorities and cares for a broad portfolio: from leading hydrographic surveys and conducting aerial drone mapping to training the next generation of enthusiastic humanitarian mappers on the island.
“I really admire Lavern’s attitude to her life and work,” says MapAction’s Alan Mills, who has worked with Lavern for many years. “She not only juggles all her government duties on Montserrat with her priorities to her family and friends, she still has time to advocate across her community, kids and adults alike, of the importance of maps and geoinformation in everyone’s lives and apply all those skills with energy to spare.”
So what has Lavern’s work entailed most recently? “The capturing and processing of drone aerial images in Montserrat was an important aspect which helped with the successful implementation of enumeration for the 2024 Montserrat population and housing census,” Lavern told the MapAction communications team.
Despite having more than 20 years GIS experience under her belt, Lavern continues to refresh and broaden her skillset. During a recent visit to the UK, Lavern attended courses, training and talks at key institutes.
At the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton, Lavern had the opportunity to meet with other UK Overseas Territory delegates and engaged in discussions on hydrographic action plans, governance and marine spatial planning. There was also a focus on the need to upskill her use of software to conduct hydrographic surveys as part of Montserrat’s commitment to the International Convention on Safety of Lives At Sea (SOLAS). “This helps us to fulfil our international safety obligations,” says Lavern, the technical lead for conducting hydrographic surveys on the island of Montserrat.
“I also visited the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) offices in Peterborough,” adds Lavern. “My focus there was to wrap up a project we were working on with respect to storm surge modelling.”
Lavern also managed to squeeze in a refresher security course, a prerequisite for all MapAction volunteers who deploy. Lavern began to volunteer with MapAction in 2019 and has been involved in several remote responses to natural disasters in the Caribbean since 2020. She expects to be involved in more this year, often together with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). After all, the Caribbean has its own season, she told GeoMob: “Hurricane Season,” from June to November each year. Her skillset will forever be needed.
MapAction has delivered 15 workshops to disaster managers in Central Asia in the last five years in partnership with the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR). Widespread use of GIS and humanitarian information management tools means local disaster managers are evermore prepared for present and future hazards.
Disaster managers attend a training event with CESDRR and MapAction in June 2023. Photos: A Wilkie.
When a fire broke out in a “large” warehouse last year in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest urban center, Dusyembaev Bagdat, the officer on duty at the time in the Department of Emergency Situations for the city, didn’t panic.
“I drew a map of the scene using QGIS, indicating the distance from the nearest fire station to the place of the fire,” says Bagdat, 34, recalling how he was able to deploy the mapping skills he had acquired during MapAction co-led workshops with the regional Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR). Maps like these help decision-makers fast track solutions in crises situations; those decisions can then dramatically reduce human suffering, economic losses and environmental or social risks.
Bagdat had previously attended two MapAction workshops on mapping for emergencies: one in the Kazakh capital Astana in 2022 and another in the former capital Almaty in 2023. These professional development seminars were part of more than half a decade of cooperation between MapAction and CESDRR.
In 2016, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan established the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR), headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The organisation’s objective is to “ensure effective mechanisms to decrease the risk of emergencies, to mitigate the consequences, to organise a joint response.” In order to further strengthen regional cooperation, CESDRR established the Central Asian regional high-level dialogue platform for DRR — the Regional Forum-Meeting of the Heads of Emergency Authorities of Central Asian countries, adding Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to the framework. In 2018, MapAction and CESDRR signed an agreement to work together.
The agreement envisaged, among other clauses, an “exchange of technical information, including samples and standards,” as well as “technical assistance,” and support in “professional development” for representatives from member states.
Since then, MapAction has continued to provide support “in GIS and mapping in emergencies.” Nearly six years and more than a dozen key encounters later, the impact is multifold.
MapAction volunteer Lukasz Gorowiec with Central Asian disaster managers at a CESDRR/MapAction training event in June 2023 in Almaty.
“Real outcomes of our work”
“Today we see real outcomes of our work” says Bakhtiyar Ospanov, a senior expert with CESDRR. “We have been cooperating with MapAction since 2018 and during this period of time we have conducted 15 training courses, trained 320 officers of emergency authorities of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan,” Ospanov told MapAction. Nearly a dozen MapAction staff members and volunteers have been involved in organising seminars on humanitarian information management and mapping for/in emergencies during the 60-month+ engagement.
The impact is mushrooming. Many of the disaster managers seconded by their organisations in the past to learn GIS tools and practices for humanitarian response have since become trainers in their own right, passing on what they learned to colleagues. This domino effect has created a cohort of GIS-savvy disaster managers in the region.
They face no shortage of challenges. “Central Asia is an extremely disaster-prone region, suffering annually from the consequences of natural disasters. In addition to earthquakes, the region is constantly threatened by landslides, floods, mudflows, droughts, avalanches and extreme air temperatures,” noted Minister of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic Major General Azhikeev Boobek at a regional summit in late 2023. In Kazakhstan alone, on average “3,000-4,000 emergency situations happen annually with 3,000-5,000 thousand victims” states UNICEF in a recent report on disaster resilience. Fires continue to be a major hazard in the Kazakh Steppe, a large area of natural grassland.
Fighting fires with GIS
Mapping solutions is key. “There is a group of officers who improved their skills and knowledge at MapAction’s last training in Almaty (June 2023) and who are about to become national trainers,” CESDRR’s Bakhtiyar Ospanov, who works alongside six other staff members at CESDRR’s HQ, told MapAction by email.
Bagdat, who helped map a solution to extinguish the fire at the warehouse in Almaty, is one of them. He now trains other members of his team of 10 who all work in the disaster management department for Kazakhstan’s largest city, and former capital, Almaty. Some of the maps created support search and rescue operations. Others can help identify a solution in a dangerous situation.
Bakhtiyar from CESDRR shared with MapAction three sample maps, made to strengthen disaster preparedness, created by reps from member states who attended MapAction’s humanitarian mapping seminars in recent years.
A map produced during a workshop in Almaty in 2023.
One envisages key scenarios in the event of an earthquake striking Almaty; another shows the location of the rescue helicopters of the Kazakhstan Air Rescue Service, by province/oblast. Yet another envisages a potential situation in the area around the Kapchagay Reservoir – just north of Almaty – should its dam be damaged/broken.
Maps for such emergencies – even if only simulated – always seek to mitigate risks.
Domino GIS effect
“What is very important is that after the training our specialists are able to share their knowledge and teach new employees,” Zaginaev Vitalii, 36, a former division head in the hazard monitoring and forecasting department at the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, tells MapAction. “I shared the knowledge gained (ed: from MapAction workshops) with my colleagues. Now they also know how to work on this program (Ed: QGIS – free mapping software). We use this program in the case of large fires or emergencies where there are victims or casualties. Also, during various search and rescue or emergency rescue operations, we use the QGIS program for a visual concept of the location of an emergency or incident,” Vitalii, who is now applying his experience in the academic sector, told MapAction.
Less than a decade old, CESDRR still has big plans. While the intergovernmental organisation does not do emergency response per se and essentially “is a bridge between Central Asian national disaster agencies and the international community,” as per Bakhtiyar, the team is equipped with drones and operators as well as UAVs “and can be involved in transboundary or resonant disaster rescue.”
Looking ahead, Bakhtiyar from CESDRR says a shared digital atlas of hazards is on the horizon for CESDRR members, inviting MapAction to take a key partner role for that future initiative. Long may the partnership live.
“We look forward to continuing to build the strong relationship we have with CESDRR to further strengthen disaster preparedness in the Central Asian region through the provision of more GIS and humanitarian IM support,” says MapAction’s CEO Colin Rogers.
There is work to be done still. “In Central Asia, there is no unified geographic information system that includes a digital atlas of natural and man-made transboundary hazards and reflects basic data on existing risks,” says Ospanov.
“The development of a unified geographic information system reflecting interactive maps of the Central Asian countries and applying information on existing risks in the form of blocks (layers) on them will make it possible to provide the subjects of emergency situations with reliable information about potential sources of emergency situations and the causes of their occurrence, ensuring control over the state of sources of emergency situations, early forecasting of possible emergency situations and their management,” says Ospanov.
Bakhtiyar’s comments point to an increasing emphasis on anticipatory action. A fire extinguisher puts out fires; a fire alarm helps prevent them. Preparedness is key.
MapAction is supporting national and local disaster management authorities to reduce and address the multiple risks faced, provide better early warning systems and facilitate risk-informed development. We kickstarted our work in Eswatini.
MapAction team members Daniel Soares and Anne-Marie Frankland, left, in blue t-shirts, together with representatives from UNDP, NDMA and other Eswatini agencies and ministries during the INFORM handover workshop in December 2023.
For nearly 20 years, in 140+ emergencies, MapAction has supported countries in mitigating disasters. Since July 2023, in partnership with the European Commission’s INFORM Risk Index, MapAction is working to support national and subnational disaster managers to update or rebuild their disaster forecasts, mitigating tools and risk atlases.
INFORM subnational risk models are an important source of information for anticipatory action, development and preparedness projects. Making sure that the models are high quality, with the best available data – and readily maintained, is essential.
In October 2023, MapAction began working with disaster authorities and international partners to build a risk and disaster model for Eswatini, a country in southern Africa with a population of just over one million. Building the risk model involves four technical processes: data collection, data processing, data calibration and data validation. All contribute to data quality control and the ‘authority’ of the model.
MapAction’s Head of Data Science Daniel Soares meets disaster management authorities and stakeholders in Eswatini, southern Africa. Photos: MapAction.
“We are really pleased to currently work with four regional disaster management agencies across Asia and Africa, as well as working with many national disaster management authorities,” says MapAction’s CEO Colin Rogers. “Working with regional and national structures is core to our approach in strengthening global humanitarian geospatial capability,” adds Rogers.
Fire extinguishers put out fires: fire alarms help prevent them. This risk assessment work is in partnership with various national and international partners, including: the Eswatini National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), UNDP and German technical development agency GIZ and will serve as a basis for the future SADC regional model also developed by UNDP, GIZ and SADC country members.
“Address multiple risks” “UNDP Eswatini is committed to working… to reduce and address multiple risks we are facing, provide better early warning systems and facilitate risk-informed development to progress towards aspirations and goals set in the National Development Plan,” said UNDP’s Eswatini Deputy Resident Representative Nessie Golakai, outlining the UN agency’s goals on anticipatory action, in December 2023.
Eswatini: risk overview
An INFORM Subnational risk index shows a detailed picture of risk and its components within a single region or country. It covers not only hazards exposure (e.g. earthquakes, floods and conflicts) but also a country’s vulnerabilities, such as diseases prevalence and poverty, as well as its coping capacity. Of particular interest for Eswatini are droughts and associated food insecurity issues. In 2023, 238,000 in Eswatini faced “acute food insecurity,” according to an IPC study reported on ReliefWeb. Eswatini also has the highest HIV prevalence in the world, according to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
For the first phase of strengthening Eswatini’s risk model, a consultation workshop took place in August 2023 bringing together national partners, SADC representatives, GIZ and UNDP. During the workshop, the model framework was defined, covering which indicators are most relevant for Eswatini and other SADC countries. A total of 87 indicators from 49 data sources were identified, including data from public international agencies such as the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank, as well as national ministries, agencies and databases.
Then comes the data processing. Data comes in different formats such as spreadsheets, pdf reports and geospatial vectors and rasters. The processing can be as easy as finding a given value for the adult literacy per region on a report or as complicated as manipulating several geospatial rasters and administrative boundaries to compute exposed population to flooding per sub-region.
Making data comprehensible
The data then needs to be calibrated. Values have different ranges and units, such as number of casualties, corruption index, immunisation rate or health facilities density. To be able to aggregate these values on a single index, a normalisation is needed, such as dividing all values by the maximum within a country or region. Once indicators are expressed in a common format (a value between 0 and 10) we can aggregate them to have one index per dimension (Hazards, Vulnerability and Capacity) and finally a single index per subnational zone.
These three steps all produce margins of error; in the final phase the data is reviewed and validated. In this phase, indicators are verified and where necessary, corrected. Partners from Eswatini made vital contributions to validate the overall results and methodologies and suggest improvements.
Handover and sustainability
The work was presented to partners at a two-day handover workshop in Eswatini in December 2023 by MapAction’s Head of Data Science Daniel Soares, Senior Meal Advisor Samuel Asimi and Volunteer Anne-Marie Frankland. This handover workshop was intended for NDMA staff to take ownership of the model, while also validating it to identify improvements. The two-day event also incorporated professional development components pegged to the INFORM methodology with a practical focus on data collection, processing and calibration.
On a practical note, three ways also emerged from the event as to how the model would be used going forward.
To support decision making on disaster preparedness, early action, disaster response and recovery.
To determine the level of exposure and vulnerability of localities for improved policy recommendation and more effective DRR measures
To coordinate data collection, storage and sharing in order to strengthen reporting and decision making based on scientific evidence. The data will be updated according to the agency’s needs, although MapAction’s recommendation is a complete update every 24 to 36 months.
MapAction’s Head of Data Science Daniel Soares presenting with local partners in Eswatini.
MapAction’s work in Eswatini is part of a larger project supported by the German Federal Foreign Office to strengthen global anticipatory action frameworks at local level. MapAction will work with several countries on new subnational models for disaster preparedness in the course of the next 18 months.
Work has already begun on developing a new subnational risk model for Saint Kitts and Nevis. We are also currently scoping new collaborations for early 2024 in Madagascar, Vanuatu, Fiji and Lebanon.
Sustainability
A key part of the work MapAction does is to ensure the sustainability of various interventions we carry out across the globe. We do this through identifying and unblocking barriers in a collaborative way with our partners. The aim of this is to encourage the building of sustainable systems to outlive MapAction’s support to these partners who may be state or non-state actors.
In addition to the above, within MapAction’s Anticipatory Action programme, we seek to ensure longevity and sustainability by establishing effective evaluation frameworks and sharing lessons learned with the wider community.
During the 2023 December Workshop, one session on Sustainability was hosted by Samuel Asimi, who highlighted the sustainability components for the INFORM Eswatini Risk model.
He noted that the handover workshop was the first of three components of the sustainability plan. The other two which will follow are the planned sustainability landscape mapping and the co-creation of an action plan. This initiative will be led by the NDMA and supported by MapAction.
Renee Babb, GIS specialist with the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) – a longterm MapAction partner – and Lavern Ryan, a GIS specialist with the government of Montserrat and also a MapAction volunteer, talk with MapAction’s Alan Mills MBE on the GeoMob podcast about CDEMA and MapAction’s decade-long relationship.
Find out why they say there is a fifth season in the Caribbean: “Hurricane Season.”
MapAction urges world leaders and stakeholders gathered at COP28 to promote data-driven solutions to improve the lives of people on the front lines of climate change. (A version of this article was first published before CoP27 in Egypt in 2022. It was updated for CoP28 in November 2023. )
In recent years we have seen a large increase in the number of natural disasters worldwide. Regular climate-related disasters are exacerbating water and food insecurity.
How emergency relief stakeholders and governments coordinate their responses to the climate emergency can impact the recovery of affected communities. That is why good data is key to preparedness and mitigation, especially in locations with limited resources.
Ice and snow on the Hindu Kush mountain range, which runs along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, is melting and causing devastating floods in both countries. Photo: MapAction
As the changing climate ravages and displaces some of the world’s poorest communities, good data use will not prevent such climate-driven occurrences. It can only soften the effects by helping the affected communities, and stakeholders, to be prepared and to coordinate relief strategies. Good use of data in decision-making at key moments can reduce the human cost of the climate emergency.
“Data, often visualised through maps, can help identify who the most vulnerable people are, where they are, and highlight need,” said Nick Moody, MapAction’s chair of trustees, before CoP27 in 2022. “At CoP27 there was a recognition that while this information is critical during a crisis, it can have an even greater effect if used in advance. MapAction has a huge role to play in helping others to build resilience through data.”
Why MapAction?
Since MapAction’s inception over 20 years ago, the charity has provided data and specialist technical geospatial and data volunteers in more than 140 crises, many climate-related, worldwide. Our team has supported responses alongside UN, regional and national agencies as well as INGOs and local civil society organisations, providing relief to some of the most vulnerable climate-exposed people worldwide.
Our 70+ volunteers come from across the ever-growing range of sectors using data and geospatial technology, bringing a huge diversity of technical expertise. MapAction gives them the training, operational experience and support needed to operate effectively in humanitarian situations.
Working in collaboration with many emergency relief partners, our teams create unique situation maps, data visualisations, data sets and other products that help coordinate disaster relief using the best available information in the most insightful ways. The improved decisions they enable can help mitigate, for example, the impact of droughts, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, famines and health crises, to save lives and protect communities. In 2023 alone, MapAction has provided data products, volunteer mapping teams or experts to support emergency response, anticipatory action programmes or capacity building in a dozen countries in five continents.
While MapAction’s initial expertise was in support of emergency response, our work is increasingly moving into early warning and preparedness. Anthropogenic climate change has been proven to alter both the likelihood and the severity of extreme weather events around the world, and the growing frequency of these can be predicted, if not precisely then generally. Being ready to spot the indicators, triggering early support for anticipatory action can be life-saving. Predictive analytics can allow us to define the mechanisms that trigger these actions by analysing current and historical data and developing models, as long as the data is reliable.
“It is more important than ever to be able to respond effectively to such events, but also to be able to anticipate them, in order to more effectively mitigate their impact,” Daniele Castellana, former lead Data Scientist at MapAction, commented before CoP27. “Through our collaborations with the Centre for Humanitarian Data and the Start Network, MapAction has been working on this flourishing component of humanitarian aid.” MapAction launched its own InnovationHub in 2022.
Early action is one of the most effective ways to address the ever-growing climate impacts. That is why MapAction has partnered with the START Network, a coalition that focuses on humanitarian action through innovation, fast funding and early action; Insurance Development Forum is also a partner in this work. START Network brings together 55 international non-governmental organisations and 7,000 partners worldwide. MapAction is also working with INFORM to support updating forecast and risk models with select national disaster management agencies worldwide.
MapAction has made concrete commitments to actively seek solutions to reduce the impact of climate change. In October 2021, we signed the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations. The charter was developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and guided by a 19-person strong Advisory Committee which included representatives of local, national and international NGOs, UN agencies and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, as well as academics, researchers and experts in the humanitarian, development, climate and environmental fields.
Signing that charter commits us to being a part of the solution and helping people adapt to a changing climate and environment. It will also help strengthen our own resolve and efforts to be environmentally sustainable. Most of all, it recognises that our efforts must be a collective endeavour – no organisation can tackle this alone.
Together with a growing range of partners, looking to engage ever more locally, we are using geospatial data, data visualization and data science to start laying the groundwork for climate resilience. The objective is to improve preventive actions and strategies in humanitarian response.
Because what we map today we can mitigate tomorrow and in the future. That is why the science of how we source, analyze, shape, share and deploy data must be at the heart of all current and future discussions on adapting to climate change.
For more info on MapAction’s work, please drop by our website.
From Mexico to South Sudan, Malawi and worldwide, MapAction and CartONG have worked together for nearly a decade to bring geospatial solutions to the humanitarian aid and international development sector. Our underlying core shared values help us support NGOs and aid actors for more impactful assistance.
Image: CartONG.
What happens if information barriers aren’t broken down for humanitarian agencies in emergencies? Food gets sent to the wrong people, search and rescue teams are misinformed, temporary settlements are set up in misguided places. Lives are lost or ruined because the right data was missing.
Breaking down information barriers
At MapAction and CartONG we embrace and live by the same values embedded in a single idea: the application of geospatial technology to improve the quality and impact of humanitarian assistance and development projects. Every map, mapathon, training event, data analysis tool or geospatial element of disaster preparedness we co-strive to create can be the key to getting aid to a stricken community or to understanding and preparing for the worst effects of a drought, flood or health emergency. These shared core values and resources have led to a beautiful cross-channel partnership between UK-based MapAction and France-based CartONG. A partnership that aims to improve the impact of aid actions by providing decision-makers and vulnerable communities with the right data to understand and mitigate any crisis.
Decade-long partnership
Our partnership has already lasted nearly a decade. As part of the Covid-19 response, MapAction seconded staff to help CartONG with the surge of activities in its partnership with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Having already worked together for several years on various projects, including as part of the H2H Network, a peer-to-peer humanitarian network, MapAction and CartONG signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work more closely together in 2020.
CartONG and MapAction have since worked together on a number of different projects. In Mexico, together with UNICEF and the Mexican government, MapAction and CartONG supported the creation of a dashboard aiming to display and monitor real-time information on key education indicators on elementary schools at the national level in order to map COVID-19 affectations before the start of the new school year in 2020. It was created to display and monitor real-time information on key education indicators for all elementary schools. This relied on over 200,000 individual schools uploading their data on a daily basis, and was the first time that this information would be collected and displayed at a national level.
Screenshot from a dashboard on the Mexico project. Image: Screenshot/UNICEF.
In South Sudan, MapAction and CartONG, together with other partners, worked to identify the data challenges that might slow down ‘final mile’ vaccine delivery in a challenging data environment. One outcome of this work was the Integrated Humanitarian Data Package, that aimed to give quick and easy access to key geographic data that underpins the planning and delivery of vaccination programmes. This pilot health project highlighted the vital role that geospatial technology can play in creating effective healthcare solutions. High quality mapping and data analysis is key to understanding how many people need vaccinating, where they are, and how and where the vaccines can be safely stored and delivered.
In 2023, CartONG and MapAction again used the IHDP to map the outbreak of cholera in Malawi. We are also both partners on the ‘UNICEF Geospatial Hotline’, where interested UN departments can request specific geospatial services from our organisations.
As we look ahead, we know the crises we try to mitigate will become evermore complex and challenging; the funding landscape evermore volatile. That is why our partnership continues to grow and why the alliances we are building with organisations like H2H, UNICEF and Start Network are so vital. We will soon also be announcing a new and exciting joint-project linked to health in West Africa. More on that soon.
We both remain committed to continue to deliver capacity building events and projects worldwide to strengthen disaster preparedness and improve the impact of humanitarian assistance.
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Welcome to the first post in a new blog series on anticipatory action. The series will explore MapAction’s work to strengthen readiness and preparedness worldwide. We’ll kick off with a few facts and definitions, as well as a review of some of the key sessions and agenda points from the The Anticipation Hub: The 11th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action, which is currently underway in Germany’s capital Berlin. This blog is part of an anticipatory action programme by MapAction kindly supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Insurance Development Forum.
What does this blog cover?
Summaries, notes, images, cartoons and observations from the The 11th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action
Anticipatory action: definition, components, facts and overview
Examples of MapAction’s work in anticipatory action
The 11th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action is currently live from Berlin! Register here to watch it. Listen in as disaster management experts from across the world discuss the latest vanguard thinking on how to mitigate climate change and weather-related hazards.
Guten Morgen. Here are some highlights to look forward to today, the final day of the The 11th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action taking place in Berlin.
We are up and running on our final day of #GlobalDP – come and join us for our opening plenary
Final day of the 11th #GlobalDP | In one of the sessions, ACAPS specialists Diogo Lemos, Francesca Giovinazzo, and Nic Parham will explore how joint analysis sets the stage for effective preparedness measures and more fit-for-purpose and impactful anticipatory action.
The Berlin Festival of Lights, which sees important landmarks in the German capital illuminated in technicolour, is also underway in Germany’s capital.
October 11th. 15:05 UTC
Heading into the final Day Two sessions now. With that, we’ll be wrapping up our Anticipation Hub blog today. We will add brief summaries and the odd pic tomorrow.
We’ll leave you with the excellent selection of anticipatory action cartoons to wind down with. Bis Morgen!
October 11th. 13:25 UTC
The Data Guardian Game for anticipatory action: a workshop on availability of data in anticipatory action.
“A useful tool to help participants grasp the significance of data in the decision-making process.”
Luke Caley from IFRC outlines the organisation’s database “with 100 years of disasters to learn from”.
“Global data needs to be verified on the ground”. Now the game begins.
Participants are divided into four groups, assuming the roles of government decision-makers. Each group is tasked with investing in various governmental agencies to enhance their data collection and analysis capabilities.
In the second stage of the game, a flood scenario is introduced, prompting participants to gather information exclusively from the agencies in which they had initially invested; they are only permitted to access data and information from these specific agencies. Armed with this information, the groups then proceeded to make crucial judgments regarding the activation of an early action protocol.
MapAction and anticipatory action
MapAction’s work in anticipatory action is kindly supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Insurance Development Forum, as well as other individual and institutional donors. Our work in anticipatory action takes on different shapes and forms from territory to territory and is correlated to disaster risk reduction initiatives worldwide. The list below is non-exhaustive and is designed to give a brief overview of MapAction anticipatory humanitarian action work.
In Kenya we work with Oxfam and the Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) Humanitarian Network to forecast and map the potential impacts of drought on northern counties. “The Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL), in Kenya cover close to 80% of the land and are home to approximately 36% of the country’s population, 70% of the national livestock and 90% of the wildlife,” states ASAL’s website. “The residents of the ASALs earn their living through a mix of pastoralism and agriculture. However, pastoralism is the main source of livelihood contributing to 13% to the GDP of Kenya and further plays a vital role in both the economic and socio-cultural development of the resident communities.” Recent droughts over the last five years have left CSOs and the communities they work with in the northern Kenyan counties of Isiolo, Kwale, Marsabit, Nyeri, Kitui and Taita Taveta more vulnerable. MapAction’s aim with this work is to increase the visibility of the work CSOs are doing in humanitarian action and to help them leverage their forecasts to release early funding and create resilience against future hazards for local residents. MapAction’s support focused on mapping at county and even ward-level, a more localised administrative unit, ensuring CSOs can integrate GIS and IM into their disaster management tools .
Start Network is another key partner for MapAction. In the last few months alone, MapAction volunteers have delivered resilience-building seminars and events for local disaster managers in Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Senegal and Madagascar.
Some of the most important work MapAction does under the umbrella of anticipatory action is through the INFORM network, the “multi-stakeholder forum for developing shared, quantitative analysis relevant to humanitarian crises and disasters.” MapAction works with several national and subnational disaster management agencies worldwide through this framework, including ongoing projects to build or upgrade national disaster models in Eswatini and Niger.
October 11th. 13:10 UTC/15:10 CEST:MapAction Chair of Trustees Nick Moody is talking next on a panel in his role as coordinator of the Global Risk Modelling Alliance (GRMA). Nick shared his thoughts briefly on MapAction’s role through the prism of anticipatory action when we caught up with him in Berlin.
“There is evidence here of real momentum towards managing risk, instead of constantly being wrong-footed by extreme events when they happen. Baseline risk assessment – necessary for pre-arranging crisis finance – is constantly improving, and forecasting is good enough to make operational decisions ahead of the impact of an imminent flood, cyclone or drought. MapAction is helping to drive this momentum, particularly in working side by side with local CSOs and NGOs in developing these critical new capabilities.”
Chair of Trustees at MapAction Nick Moody
The Global Shield and its relevance to anticipatory action
The Global Shield against Climate Risk is a new initiative to avert, minimize and address climate-related losses and damages by scaling up climate and disaster-risk financing instruments, coupled with social protection mechanisms and early warning systems. The initiative was launched at last year’s UN Climate Conference, building on a joint effort by the G7 and the Vulnerable 20 Group (V20).
This workshop will introduce the aims and structure of the Global Shield, including how the Global Shield Solutions Platform and the Global Shield Financing Facility can both provide support for climate- and disaster-risk financing instruments, including anticipatory action approaches; it will also explore the role of the anticipatory action community.
Register for or watch the workshop here. Starts at: 13.15 UTC/15:15 CEST.
Moderators
Jonathan Auer, Junior Advisor, Global Shield Secretariat
Lea Sarah Kulick, Advisor, Secretariat of the Global Shield against Climate Risks
Speaker
Lorraine Njue, Head of Actuarial, ARC Ltd
Nick Moody, Cooordinator, Global Risk Modelling Alliance (GRMA)
Kaavya Ashok Krishna, Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank / Global Shield Financing Facility
Annette Detken , Head of the Global Shield Solution Platform , Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Kip Koskei , Director of Strategic Partnerships , Insurance Development Forum
Emily Montier, Consultant, World Bank
New countries can apply for support from the Global Shield at CoP28.
11.11.11 A team of 11 strong Nepali delegation at the 11th #GDP2023 ready for the 2nd day of the dialogue on 11th Oct.
Break in plenary session at the #GlobalDP. Back this afternoon. Here are some other things to think about during the break. We’ll be back to wrap things up this afternoon.
Volunteer with MapAction to work on anticipatory action projects!
A lot of the work MapAction does in anticipatory action (with the Start Network and INFORM) involves our volunteer cohort of 70+ GIS and IM specialists. We are currently recruiting for six new exciting volunteer positions. Read on here to find out more about volunteering with MapAction.
Find out more about the volunteer community of practice at MapAction here.
2. Check out this UN video on role of data in AI in building resilience
INTERESTING RESOURCE (from the UN): Reimagining Tomorrow: Breakthrough in Data and AI for a More Resilient World
“Step into the future with the UN-hosted Complex Risk Analytics Fund, the Early Warnings for All initiative and Gzero Media at the 78th United Nations (UN) General Assembly. As we navigate an era of multifaceted global crises – amplified by climate change – recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), technologies, and data ecosystems create transformative opportunities to tackle these challenges. Together with global leaders and change-makers, we envisage a world where global partners unlock the potential of data, analytics, and AI to better anticipate crises and pave the way for a more sustainable and resilient future.”
An ongoing project in the Philippines with the Philippines Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) on disaster landscape mapping.
In the Session 2 panel, titled, A roadmap to institutionalisation: anticipatory action milestones towards shared resilience, representatives from disaster management agencies in the Philippines, Nepal and Bangladesh. All three governments are mainstreaming anticipatory action strategies into their disaster risk reduction policies.
MapAction works closely with all three countries to create disaster resilience through the Start Network. In the last few months, MapAction volunteers have led disaster-resilience seminars focused on mapping the potential impacts of future hazards in all three countries. MapAction will be presenting the results from partnerships in Nepal at NetHope this month.
Really interesting interventions from WFP Mozambique on how the national disaster management agency, the national meteorological agency and agencies mandated to support and manage agriculture have been coordinating their anticipatory action policies. A representative from Burkinabe Red Cross follows up asking how governments can be convinced to institutionalise anticipatory action and early action policies.
October 11th, 08:10 UTC
Welcome to Day Two of the The 11th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action in Berlin. The opening plenary session is ‘Anticipatory Action Practice in 2023 and beyond: navigated challenges from protracted crises to El Niño’.
This panel included an energetic talk by Albashir Ibrahim, Executive Director, Nexus Consortium Somalia and Somali Humanitarian Hub about locally led anticipatory action.
Anticipatory Action examples! Approximately 90$ million dollars allocated to protect food security due to El Niño by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in 18 countries – many in Central and Southern America – mainly due to low rainfall. Mainly protecting fisheries, livestock etc.
UNICEF is using epidemiological indicators in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to anticipate cholera outbreaks to trigger early & flexible financing to both respond and anticipate to other outbreaks.
Honduras Red Cross anticipating social crises triggered from migratory routes through Latin America.
October 10th. 15:30 UTC
A cartoon to wrap things up for today. More updates tomorrow.
“And if there’s ever a question of whose responsibility something is, simply CC everyone.”
Day 1 wraps up with lightning talks, in which a CSO leader and an academic explore how El Niño is affecting lives, health, food security, violence and displacement of children and adolescents.
With:
Wendy Emilia Vera García, Leader, Movimiento Por Ser Niña (‘Because I am a Girl’ movement)
Liz Stephens, Science Lead / Professor of Climate Risks and Resilience, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and University of Reading
The parallel sessions are about to begin at #GlobalDP – come and join us online 👇🏾
Anticipatory action (AA) is a humanitarian term. We will use the Red Cross definition below:
“A set of actions taken to prevent or mitigate potential disaster impacts before a shock or before acute impacts are felt. The actions are carried out in anticipation of a hazard impact and based on a prediction of how the event will unfold. Anticipatory actions should not be a substitute for longer-term investment in risk reduction and should aim to strengthen people’s capacity to manage risks.”
The following are not synonymous with anticipatory action but are closely interconnectedterms: early action, early warning, disaster risk reduction, future preparedness, disaster resilience, forecast-based action, forecast-based finance.
Nepal at the centre stage of the #GlobalDP with a powerful message from the CEO of @NDRRMA_Nepal: "Nepal is keen to engage with the wider #AnticipatoryAction community to ensure we reach everyone with #EW4all and are able to save lives and reduce loss and damages" – Anil Pokhrel pic.twitter.com/CqP5hC0OLt
In the last 10 years… 410,000 people have been killed by extreme weather and climate-related events, most by heatwaves and storms. (World Disaster Report 2020)
In the last 10 years… 83% of all disasters were caused by extreme weather and climate-related events
There has been a 35% increase in climate and weather-related hazards since 1990
The East Asia and Pacific region alone includes 13 of the 30 countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to the World Bank. “Without concerted action, the region could see an additional 7.5 million people fall into poverty due to climate impacts by 2030,” warns the international financial institution.
What can we learn from acrobats in anticipatory action? Trust, practice, learning from mistakes. Photo: MapAction.
Anticipatory action networks
MapAction volunteers attended training with INFORM in Italy in September 2023. MapAction will be working with several national disaster management agencies to build new disaster models or to update their current ones within the INFORM framework. Goal? Greater resilience. Photo: Leon Baruah.
MapAction is part of the following anticipatory action frameworks and networks:
INFORM: INFORM is a multi-stakeholder forum for developing shared, quantitative analysis relevant to humanitarian crises and disasters. INFORM includes organisations from across the multilateral system, including the humanitarian and development sector, donors, and technical partners. The Joint Research Center of European Commission is the scientific lead for INFORM. INFORM is developing a suite of quantitative, analytical products to support decision-making on humanitarian crises and disasters. These help make decisions at different stages of the disaster management cycle, specifically climate adaptation and disaster prevention, preparedness and response.
“The partnership between INFORM and MapAction greatly increases our capacity to support countries to develop INFORM Subnational risk models. These models help countries understand their risks and inform planning and programming to better prevent and prepare for crises and disasters.”
Andrew Thow, INFORM Programme Manager
Start Network: Start Network is made up of more than 80 non-governmental organisations across five continents, ranging from large international organisations to local and national NGOs. Our programmes allow members to deliver humanitarian action around the world.
Reflections from our first #GlobalDP session this year on #AnticipatoryAction processes and timelines: 💬Involve communities from start to finish of the response. 🤝Risk assessments should be participatory. 💡Disaster Risk Reduction scientific communities should be engaged. pic.twitter.com/S6ko4zysho
Anticipatory action allows communities exposed to hazards, as well as disaster managers, to be more prepared and forecast future hazards. It is a framework for disaster risk reduction and for triggering early release of funds to mitigate the effects of hazards.
Thesefour phases are regularly used components within an anticipatory action plan.
TRIGGERS: Defines when and where early action will be implemented.
EARLY ACTIONS: Defines what early actions will be taken to reduce the impact
FINANCING MECHANISM: a pre-agreed financing mechanism
DELIVERY: Capacity to implement actions as planned
Triggers are essential to activating #AnticipatoryAction to save lives and livelihoods before hazards strike.
To learn more about creating a robust trigger mechanism, join @FAO, @UNOCHA, @climatesociety and more at this workshop.
Images from the Anticipation Hub in Berlin, where a team of MapAction anticipatory action specialists – project managers, data scientists, software engineers – are in attendance. Photo: MapAction.
There are also three agreed parameters for anticipatory action:
What? The action is taken to reduce or prevent the crisis impact
When? The action is taken ahead of the hazard impact or before the impacts of the shock fully unfold (not to be confused with early response)
How? The decision to act is taken on a forecast or a collaborative analysis
Without a consistent approach to sex-and-age-disaggregated-data (SADD) in local, national and international data collection, the specific needs of women and girls – as well as men and boys – will continue to be misunderstood or overlooked by international development agents and disaster relief operators. The same is true for understanding the needs of the LGBT community in a disaster.
Women and children, and in some cases men and boys, should not be more likely to die or be injured in a natural disaster. Yet a brief review of the literature on the disproportionate effects disasters place on different genders reveals that boys, girls, men and women can all be overlooked in humanitarian response for different reasons.
Previous studies have shown that key challenges in health, provision of shelter, food security and women’s safety – to mention but a few examples – cannot be solved with a one-profile-fits-all approach to data collection and analysis. Otherwise certain groups remain marginalised and the support they need does not reach them.
Needs differ, even in a disaster
MapAction, a humanitarian mapping charity that maps disaster landscapes, needs the right data to make the right maps to support decision-makers. Decisions based on SADD can be critical, yet hard to source. To get a better understanding of the need for more SADD in humanitarian response, MapAction interviewed representatives from 10 stakeholder organisations and reviewed dozens of specialist academic reviews on SADD in humanitarian data collection and response.
The knowhow MapAction has accumulated from 140+ emergency responses feeds into the long-term innovation and MEAL strategy.
The process revealed that sometimes something as simple as stigma can be the key factor in misunderstanding gender-specific needs in a disaster. During the cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2011, for example, SADD revealed that more men were dying and fewer men were attending clinics than women. This led to the discovery that men needed more education on the symptoms and highlighted where men had been hiding their symptoms because they confused them with HIV, which had associated stigma, notes a case study in the EU’s Gender-Age Toolkit.
Another report by UN Women also found that people who identify as LGBT suffer more before and after a disaster. “The authors found that the discrimination, violence and isolation LGBT people face before, during and after emergencies weakens their ability to live resilient and dignified lives, survive and recover. And humanitarian and disaster response organizations do not appear to be systematically dealing with the problem, they say,” states UN Women in a summary of the report The Only Way Up that looked at cases in Myanmar, the Philippines and Vanuatu.
An interesting case study from Eritrea showed that adolescent demobilised male fighters were experiencing severe malnutrition because they did not know how to cook and had nobody to cook for them. While cases such as these highlight male margination, it is women and girls who continue to experience the most disproportionate impact because of unresolved gender parity issues, especially in societies with stronger patriarchal attitudes. “Gender equality is growing more distant. UN Women puts it 300 years away,” António Guterres, secretary general of the UN, told the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2023.
Women most affected
In Pakistan, for example, a 2009 review of World Food Programme (WFP) food ration recipients identified 95% of registered men were collecting rations, but only 55% of women. This triggered further investigation that led to understanding the access constraints affecting women, states a multi-stakeholder report from 2011.
Another example showed that female victims of natural disasters in Pakistan refused to be transported by male helicopter pilots because of potential stigma and fear of repercussions from male relatives. Stakeholders from major INGOs interviewed by MapAction for this study also cited striking other examples of gender imbalance in aid provision from Tanzania, Somalia and Sri Lanka. Understanding the role gender plays in each territory and context is vital.
Globally natural disasters kill more women than men and often at a younger age, observed a World Health Organization (WHO) study. Gender and age both matter in terms of who dies, who is injured and whose lives are impacted in what ways during and after the crisis, note Mazurana and Proctor in the The Routledge Companion to Humanitarian Action.
Data challenge
That is why sex-and-age-disaggregated data (SADD) is key. SADD highlights how people are affected differently depending on their age and gender, notes a 2021 report by the office of the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Disaggregated data is key for example when modelling differences in development, mortality and disease risk, allowing for more targeting of specific at risk groups, states an earlier study on gender, data and international crisis response. Disaggregated data is also vital for understanding vulnerabilities, needs and barriers to access during a humanitarian response.
Number of people trained in disaster management by MapAction over the course of two decades.
Culture and politics play a role
Yet often SADD is sadly not available. “It is commonly argued that ‘paying attention to gender issues may not be timely or practical on the ground,’ i.e. the so-called ‘tyranny of the urgent,’” notes a study by the Swedish development agency Sida, while emphasising the role that SADD can play for “effective relief and lifesaving assistance.”
Beyond the will to collect such data, there are logistical and technical challenges. SADD can be complex to interpret and better formatting and presentation are needed to improve adoption for programming decisions. Others have noted that where SADD is collected, there are reports of inconsistent collection, inconsistent data management and inconsistent analysis and use. There are also challenges associated with data sharing, with a lack of coordination and data quality concerns. Data collected locally are also sometimes not shared or aggregated at a national level in a way that loses the SADD which was collected.
More SADD, please!
We believe the brief and non-exhaustive list of recommendations and resources below will help strengthen our own and our partners’ role in pushing for the availability and mainstreaming of more SADD for humanitarian response.
The more people who are asking how gender is being considered during assessments, or requesting SADD, the more likely it is to begin to be more systematically considered. This should include sharing of knowledge and best practices with partners and in the humanitarian ecosystem;
Identify community groups and agencies that may be key to helping inform and include a gender perspective;
Training and awareness raising. It is not just after a disaster occurs that SADD matters, it is also important in anticipatory action. Integrating protection, gender and inclusion considerations into anticipatory action interventions is a crucial step in tackling the intersecting vulnerabilities that affect the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It also helps to ensure that any assistance provided does not exacerbate these vulnerabilities.
In early April 2023, a MapAction team led by Luis F. P. Velasquez deployed to Lima, the capital of Peru, to help map the response to deadly floods at the request of the local office of the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC), a longtime MapAction partner.
MapAction volunteer Andy Kervell discusses a MapAction MapWall with a UN OCHA officer in Lima, Peru. Photo: MapAction.
The government of Peru had declared a state of emergency in three northern coastal states and across 54% of the country, following heavy rains since December last year.
As roads and key transport hubs were blocked, schools forced to close and vulnerable people left stranded in large swathes of northern Peru, humanitarian respondents had to find ways to navigate the emergency and plan humanitarian support operations in an environment with limited data.
The MapAction team was supported remotely by Tom Huger, with volunteers Becky Kervell and Andy Kervell joining the mission a week later to support UNDAC’s efforts to map the aid response.
“There’s no way we could have produced such quality visualisation of the issues without MapAction’s team”, said a member of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a key user of MapAction’s map products in Peru. “We would have had to rely on very simplified versions of maps, with a very limited update capacity,” added OCHA’s Peru flood response team member.
Portrait of an emergency
MapAction’s maps paint a clearer picture of the emergency for key managers and agencies involved in decision-making in any crisis. Besides the actual mapping, MapAction’s knowhow from over 140 emergency responses worldwide in the last 20 years acts as a radar for the most relevant data to map in a crisis scenario.
Feedback from partners suggests that MapAction’s intervention in Peru was timely and effective. “It would have been difficult to select the best, most relevant data that should be best presented in a map format,” without MapAction, added OCHA’s team member.
MapAction volunteer Andy Kervell, who also deployed, was happy to be able to visit old colleagues in Lima having previously worked on reconstruction efforts remotely as part of his day job with Arup* following previous floods in Peru.
A pack of MapAction maps related to the floods rest on a table before a team meeting with humanitarian partners at UN and government agencies.
“It really was about the opportunity to contribute to the response for communities affected by this event which I have previous involvement with from my day job with Arup,” said Andy Kervell, who spent two weeks mapping for UNDAC together with fellow geospatial humanitarian mapper, and partner, MapAction volunteer Becky Kervell.
“Clear way to identify most impacted areas”
Maps help everyone in an emergency response scenario get a better sense of a given humanitarian priority and co-produce the best possible relief decisions, whether it be in terms of shelter, resource allocation or getting aid to where it is most needed.
“It [MapAction’s maps] provided a clear way to identify most impacted areas – areas where there would be more people with humanitarian needs – in order to organise the response. This would have been done in people’s heads otherwise and not as effectively,” said a UN OCHA officer who worked on the flood response.
Volunteer Andy Kervell, one of circa 80 volunteers at MapAction, highlights how a map can also help decision-makers assess a specific crisis challenge with a given data set. This map of shelters in Piura, for example, highlighted that there was quite a difference in the number of people in shelters compared to those affected. This suggested that it was likely that families were staying within the community. Emergency responses require such key insights.
“MapAction’s work helped increase the understanding of the humanitarian situation using the limited data available, as well as contributing together with other partners through other information products, in the shaping of a common and clear situational picture,” Antonio E. Miranda Melgar, information management officer at UN OCHA and a member of the Peru flood response in 2023, told MapAction.
The impact was tangible, adds Melgar: “This has helped the effective delivery of humanitarian aid by several humanitarian actors and decision makers.”
Team Leader Luis F. P. Velasquez added that MapAction’s presence helped to shape the humanitarian response. “MapAction’s work played an important role in advocacy, as well as helping in the effective delivery of humanitarian aid by strengthening decision-making processes through the use of data,” said Velasquez.
Dogs patrol volunteer tents after a bout of rain at a recent MapAction training weekend. Photo: Cate Seale.
MapAction is a hub of 80 data, geospatial and geography professionals who volunteer as humanitarian mappers for disaster relief. Our new Head of Communications Alex Macbeth shares his views below of a recent training weekend, providing an insight into how and why volunteers at MapAction do what they do.
The GPS points towards a small community hall in a village not far from Oxford. As I approach, a row of wet tents in a field catches my eye. A couple of covered gas canisters outside suggest there has been cooking. Inside the sparsely-adorned hall, about 50 people are sitting on plastic chairs or leaning on pop-up tables.
The breakfast snacks on a table are thrifty: bread, tea, a handful of digestives. Laptop bags and raincoats line the edges of the room, like landmarks parked between the rivers of cables and extension leads. A few well-behaved dogs are roaming around, although it isn’t clear what geospatial credentials any of them have. Laptops are out; all eyes are on the map on the projector.
A foremost expert among dogs on Geospatial Information Systems (GIS)? Photo: Luis Velasquez.
Lean and green event
I wasn’t sure what to expect at my first MapAction training weekend after recently joining the humanitarian mapping charity as head of communications. Many aid events I have attended or that I have been a part of in the last 10 years in the sector have often had the aesthetics of a high-society gala rather than a community feel. This was less Champagne Sunday, more lean and green.
MapAction, a charity that works alongside UN, regional and civil society disaster relief agencies to map disaster landscapes and strengthen disaster preparedness, holds regular training events for its cohort of nearly 80 volunteers. These events create a platform to simulate disasters and the response expected from MapAction. They also serve as a way for volunteers who have been on deployments or worked on projects to provide feedback to each other, their peers and to the broader team at MapAction. These circular procedures and reviews are fundamental to how MapAction assesses impact. The learnings from these events ultimately get fed back to our InnovationHub, where new tools, projects, approaches and solutions are developed.
New recruits
Early in 2023, MapAction added 12 new recruits to its volunteer cohort after a diligent and long interview and screening process. They come from an incredible range of fields and work for leading research institutes, businesses and other bodies, including the British Geological Survey, the British Antarctic Survey, Arup, Informed Solutions, the University of St Andrews and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to mention but a few.
MapAction volunteers, old and new, brainstorming in a session at a recent training weekend outside Oxford, UK. Photo: Alan Mills.
Their skill sets for the job are proven but it is their life experiences that jump out. One is a former National Park ranger in Taiwan; another made maps for an Oscar-winning actor while yet another was himself a child actor on screen. They come from half a dozen countries, including Andorra.
As I drove to the training weekend through endless roundabouts on a particularly rainy Sunday morning, I kept asking myself: why do successful mapping and data professionals give up their time and drag themselves to or across England in late March to camp by a wet community hall for a weekend? The answer was obvious once inside the room.
United community
The shared sense of commitment to humanitarian values was overwhelming. Volunteers don’t bemoan the sacrifice. If there is a personal cost to the work they do with MapAction, they hide it well. Passion brings them time and time again. The sense of passion for being able to support and inform key relief decisions in humanitarian crises is something money cannot buy. That shared sense of community – that shared commitment – was tangible.
The training itself focused on the procedures for mapping in humanitarian situations: naming maps and admin boundary colour schemes, archiving data, different symbology (good to distinguish the humanitarian icon for bacteria from that for bottled water), as well as templates, toolbars and software used by MapAction. There was also a review of MapAction’s recent earthquake response in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic.
Many of the 50 or so volunteers in the room were ‘veterans’ of recent deployments: whether it be MapAction’s response to the earthquakes in Turkiye or the team that deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo at Christmas last year in response to floods. Some volunteers professed to having weaker cartography skills than others; others were evidently linguists or experienced project managers. It was easy to see how this combination of skill sets is needed to tailor the right response to a vast range of natural disasters in so many global territories.
Always ready
And that is really the point. No two disaster responses look the same. For MapAction to be committed to saving lives when disasters strike, this fundamentally generous network of professionals needs to constantly update its skills and training to be on standby to respond. Volunteers outnumber staff by 4 to 1 at MapAction. That prevalence of volunteer spirit is MapAction’s soul; the shared sense of purpose cannot be rivalled with other incentives.
After a brief editorial exercise and an attempt to sign up these awesome women and men to produce content, it was time to pack up and leave. Tables, chairs, cables and projectors were dismantled with clinical efficiency. I couldn’t see them but I suspected even the dogs were trained to do something, like update software or pack away tents.
All said and done, the volunteers returned to different parts of the UK or Europe. One was seen setting off for a major transport hub miles away by bike. With them all went a little more disaster preparedness into the world.
This work is made possible with funds from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)
Prompt mobilisation of MapAction volunteers is helping the earthquake response in Türkiye and Syria. But as natural disasters intensify, the charity is appealing for funds to meet growing demand
A batch of maps printed for disaster relief field teams in Gaziantep, southeast Turkiye, in February 2023. Photo: MapAction.
MapAction has signed the Standby Partnership Agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) which will allow the UK-based emergency response and disaster preparedness charity to have greater impact in health emergencies.
The agreement will see MapAction volunteers ready on standby to deploy to any health emergency operations at the request of the WHO. This will help bring the organisation’s unique data-driven approach to saving lives in even more health crises worldwide.
The Standby Partnership Agreement will streamline and simplify how MapAction can deploy to WHO emergency operations at short notice. The agreement states that MapAction will “maintain a roster of standby personnel….for the rapid mobilisation and deployment of pre-screened individuals…to WHO emergency operations.”
“We will provide some surge support that will be relevant to WHO emergency operations,” MapAction’s CEO Liz Hughes says of the agreement, noting that it is an important step to being able to deploy faster and more efficiently alongside WHO teams in emergency operations. “We have a growing knowledge of health needs through our own work” adds MapAction’s CEO.
MapAction has already lent data management, geospatial and mapping support in 13 health-related emergency deployments worldwide since 2014. Teams of volunteers from the Oxfordshire-based charity were involved in providing support in the Ebola crisis in West Africa, as well as during the more recent COVID-19 pandemic. A team of MapAction volunteers is also currently working on a project to reduce the impacts of cholera in Malawi.
Besides deployments to emergency health crises, MapAction has also developed, with partners, the Integrated Humanitarian Data Package (IHDP) tool, designed to aid final mile vaccine delivery planning and logistics. It contains selected data sets, information explaining the data (‘metadata’) as well as GIS and coding tools which allow users to easily develop situation-specific items such as maps and other graphics.
The IHDP was trialled during the roll out of COVID-19 vaccines in South Sudan.
It was adapted in Burundi in late 2022 to combat the impacts of malaria.
Three members of MapAction, the humanitarian mapping agency, have had to cut short or postpone their Christmas plans as they drop everything to respond to the UN’s call for help in Kinshasa, DRC, to respond to deadly floods.
The MapAction DRC team on the ground. Photo: MapAction.
Experienced MapAction members Mark Gillick, Andrew Kesterton and Daniel Soares have deployed to DRC – initially for two weeks – to work alongside, and at the request of, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), a long-standing MapAction partner.
Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo in southwest Africa, has experienced severe flooding caused by heavy rains. According to DRC authorities, at the time of writing, at least 169 people have died, nearly 39,000 households were flooded and at least 282 houses were destroyed, leaving many families homeless. Critical infrastructure has also been damaged or destroyed.
The United Nations Disaster Assessment & Coordination (UNDAC) team were asked to respond and they requested “long-standing partner” MapAction, the Oxfordshire-based humanitarian mapping charity, to support their initial emergency response coordination to the floods.
MapAction regularly sends teams to crisis-stricken areas alongside UN agencies to help ensure good data use and management in disaster response. Since 2002, MapAction has been part of approximately 130 similar emergency responses.
Our teams regularly deploy last-minute and spontaneously at the request of UN disaster relief agencies like UN OCHA and UNDAC. From the moment we receive a request for support, team members often deploy within 24 to 48 hours to the affected country to assist with management and analysis of data in response to any given emergency.
MapAction volunteers train year-wide to prepare to deploy and provide backend support. Photo: MapAction.
Getting good data into the hands of decision makers in the first days of any disaster relief response is vital. Access to high-quality data is fundamental in the chaotic aftermath of a humanitarian emergency, when data and maps are crucial to make rapid sense of the situation and plan the best response to save lives and minimise suffering.
In the early hours of a crisis, one of the first tasks facing our team is to produce standardised ‘core’ maps that will be used throughout the response. These provide contextual and reference information about, among other things, the local environment, population and infrastructure. Sometimes they are created under difficult on-the-ground conditions or with incomplete information. Once they are in place, they are used to create additional situation-specific maps by layering on top evolving information about the extent and impacts of the emergency and the humanitarian response.
Ready to deploy
In emergency response, every hour is critical. When floods strike, like the ones currently affecting DRC, and a UN agency requests our support, a call goes out instantly to MapAction volunteers to see who is available. Backroom support at MapAction will already have begun: tickets, visas, insurance and other logistics will be reviewed and finalised; software and hardware tested and customized for the situation. Equipment will be streamlined according to mission-aligned criteria, such as a country’s specific voltage, plug type and satellite phone coverage. Our geospatial department will begin to produce maps from the moment the news is reported. Dialogue between internal departments and with external partners will be continuous.
As the DRC-bound team works in-country alongside UN agencies, the wider MapAction team has already started collating and publishing key datasets for the affected area.
MapAction’s 2022 Annual General Meeting celebrated 20 years of humanitarian service. The event in early December also served as a platform to announce the organisation’s increasing pivot towards early warning work – to consolidate global resilience to the climate emergency, health epidemics and conflict.
20 years ago a small group of people started MapAction from humble beginnings in a village in Oxfordshire. The organisation has grown – via more than 130 deployments alongside international, regional and national relief agencies – to encompass a cohort of more than 60 volunteers and 20 staff with a global footprint of projects in five continents.
In 2022 alone, MapAction was involved in responses to disasters in Paraguay, Suriname, Madagascar, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, The Gambia and the Philippines (to mention but a few), responding to cyclones, floods, droughts, conflict and food security emergencies.
This year, MapAction volunteers and staff completed 59 projects. Our teams produced hundreds of maps and trained more than 100 professionals in GIS and data and information management worldwide. With the help of five major donors and many individual donations, we were able to work with 26 key partners globally. A majority of our cohort of volunteers attended 14 training events in the UK.
New dawn
Coming into 2022 we knew it would be an inflection point for the organisation, with different routes we could travel. Twenty years on from our beginnings, that seems appropriate.
We have had a front seat alongside emergency relief agencies in more than 130 disaster responses since we started providing maps, data analytics and IM services to humanitarian emergency relief coordinators. Thousands of maps later, we are using that experience to create new, and better, ways of working.
Grassroots resilience
Perhaps the most striking change compared to the humanitarian sector 20 years ago when MapAction was founded is the shift away from global relief agencies towards local and national leadership for response, anticipatory action and preparedness. We recognised a while back that we will not always be the ones providing the maps; others will do so. That is why we are increasingly focusing on a strategy of ‘global localisation’: supporting regional and grassroots response capacity.
MapAction works with regional and local disaster relief bodies and civil society organisations worldwide to strengthen resilience and preparedness vis-a-vis any disaster. In Asia, we work with the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre) – an intergovernmental organisation consisting of 10 southeast Asian nations – as well as the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) in Central Asia.
In the Caribbean, MapAction works with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). Equivalent projects are also underway to create partnerships and opportunities for knowledge exchange among humanitarian data analytics practitioners in Africa.
InnovationHub
We support organisations to streamline preparedness for any disaster through enhancing response with innovation and new ideas. That is why we are increasingly placing resources and energy into our InnovationHub, which identifies, prioritises and explores needs and opportunities in the humanitarian data analytics sector. Our ultimate goal is for no one to be left behind.
We see the potential of building communities of like-minded people to use geospatial and data analysis to help decision-making effectively. We wanted to globalise the wonderful data-crunching culture of MapAction, our own community of practice. Such communities can cross national boundaries working collaboratively and in solidarity to use data and tech to solve problems and answer questions
Looking to 2023
In 2023, we are already earmarked to work in Bangladesh, Burundi, Madagascar, Philippines and South Sudan on preparedness and anticipatory action, as well as on health microplanning. The calendar for next year in general is looking exciting.
In January, MapAction will lead ‘geo-surgery’ sessions as part of the State of the Map Tanzania conference. In April, our annual disaster simulation Gilded will bring together more than 50 data professionals on the Isle of Cumbrae off the west coast of Scotland. Our InnovationHub will continue to collaborate with the Predictive Analytics team at the UN Centre for Humanitarian Data to push the boundaries of innovation.
As the final days of the year loom, I can honestly say 2022 was everything we anticipated. We end the year having achieved what we set out to do, with perhaps the strongest team that we’ve ever had. We will carry this momentum into 2023, fully aware that very real challenges lie ahead of the horizon. One of the greatest challenges we will face will be to secure the resources that we need to achieve the impact that we strive for. I know that MapAction will continue to work to fill this funding gap with determination, innovation and conviction.
All that remains for me to say is to wish all of our donors, partners, volunteers, members, staff, friends and followers all the very best for the festive season. Merry Xmas!
MapAction continues to help create resilience for geospatial and data science practitioners in the Asia-Pacific region working on emergency response and anticipatory action. It is part of MapAction’s ‘global strategy of localisation’, a commitment to empower regional disaster relief bodies and civil society stakeholders to be more resilient and sustainable.
The East Asia and Pacific region alone includes 13 of the 30 countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to the World Bank. “Without concerted action, the region could see an additional 7.5 million people fall into poverty due to climate impacts by 2030,” warns the international financial institution.
In 2021, MapAction signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), a civil society partnership of 59 international and regional NGOs working in 18 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, to support that “concerted action”.
The ADRRN network, in its own words, “focuses on transforming Asia’s resilience, moving from the most vulnerable to the most resilient region’. Its influence and reach is considerably enhanced through collaboration with national-level networks, global networks, regional multilateral stakeholders and UN agencies.”
MapAction remains committed to strengthening the global humanitarian data science and geospatial sectors through partnerships with civil society networks like ADRRN. “Our joint agreement commits us to seeing how humanitarian information can help in planning and developing tools for anticipatory action and in better understanding the different contexts of emergencies, such as the difference between urban and rural settings,” says MapAction CEO Liz Hughes.
Our work so far with ADRRN has focused on improving Information Management (IM) for civil society organisations (CSOs) to have a better understanding of their existing resources, impact and plans. MapAction also supports CSOs to be interoperable with other humanitarian actors and mechanisms. This nourishes a bottom-up approach to building capacity and ability to do IM at local levels – that then regional and international agencies can support. The ultimate goal is for local stakeholders to be more resilient vis-a-vis any crisis.
MapAction continues to provide data and volunteers for emergencies in the region alongside major international relief agencies like the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). But working with civil society organisations at ADRRN has additional benefits. “Doing it through a network encourages spillover approaches and techniques from one agency to another,” says Alan Mills MBE, a MapAction team member on the project. “MapAction wants to learn peer-to-peer with these agencies who come with different world experiences and perspectives from our own.”
MapAction’s partnership with ADRRN is ongoing. As part of Regional Humanitarian Partnership Week in Bangkok (jointly organised by ADRRN, CWS, ICVA and OCHA) on December 14th, MapAction will lead a session to support how people use geospatial data in emergencies. The presentation and ‘geo-surgery’ Q&A for partners will cover ‘Using location data for preparedness and response work’. In a nutshell, tips and techniques for successful geospatial work.
Geo-surgery date
A screenshot of a 3W dashboard MapAction produced for CDP in the Philippines in December 2021 following Typhoon Rai.
The session will focus on some key geospatial and data challenges faced by data scientists and geospatial data engineers when confronted with any emergency, from mapping techniques, to location surveys and establishing baseline data for the ‘3Ws’: the who-what-where baseline information that is so vital to emergency service coordinators and providers to able to make informed decisions. The session led by MapAction will look at rapid mapping techniques using software like PowerPoint, Excel, Google Earth, ESRI ArcGis (mapping software) and QGIS (an open source geo data tool).
Another Q&A with stakeholders will explore the benefits of including location in assessments, using survey tools such as Kobo. The discussion will explore how good data sources, good formatting and interoperability can all represent quick wins for geodata specialists working in disaster relief.
In the last 16 months, MapAction data volunteers and staff have been working on projects in Sri Lanka and the Philippines geared at building preparedness. In Sri Lanka we work with Muslim Foundation for Culture and Development (MFCD) and in the Philippines with the Centre for Disaster Preparedness Foundation Inc (CDP). Both projects focus on mapping their programmes and partnerships (the who-what-where baseline of information and ‘3W Rapid Mapping’) through a standardised template. Essentially, creating a clear view to pierce through the whirlpool of data.
“Not only does this provide our partners with useful information about what everyone is doing but it also provides visibility amongst the full ADRRN network and with regional and global bodies such as OCHA. During a crisis response this is useful as this information can be fed straight into the humanitarian cluster system for the 3W work, so the local civil society organisations are getting better visibility in the response and with donors – and it also fosters better interoperability between all organisations,” says MapAction’s Matt Sims, who worked on both projects.
At MapAction we are committed to building on what we already know: use of data to mitigate the devastating effects of global threats such as climate change is at the heart of why we set-up our Innovation Hub in 2022. The emphasis on innovation in how we use, source, present and process data to mitigate natural disasters aligns with stakeholder policy.
“Frontier technologies and digital innovations not only reduce the cost of implementing the policy interventions, but also have game-changing impacts on scaling up transformative adaptation through enhanced risk analytics like impact forecasting and integrated multi-hazard risk assessment and early warning, surveillance, and strategic foresights,” notes the UN’s Economic and Social Commission For Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Asia Pacific Disaster Report for 2022.
“Anticipatory action protects lives”
This is part of a prevailing global strategy to put data and innovation at the centre of mitigating the colossal impacts of the climate emergency, including through the promotion of disaster risk reduction and emerging anticipatory action strategies. “Anticipatory action protects lives, livelihoods, homes and entire communities. These early investments also prevent higher response costs down the road. This is at the core of my prevention agenda — to put better data, and more innovation, foresight and inclusion, into our work to address major risks,” affirmed UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ in a video message for a UN event on Anticipatory Action in September 2021.
MapAction’s work with ADRRN is part of a broader institutional strategy to engage and partner with regional and local disaster relief bodies and civil society organisations worldwide. Since 2018, MapAction has worked extensively with the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre), an intergovernmental organisation consisting of 10 southeast Asian nations.
MapAction also works with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in the Caribbean, as well as the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) in Central Asia. Equivalent projects are also underway to create partnerships and opportunities for knowledge exchange in humanitarian data science in Africa.
MapAction is helping CSOs put together the building blocks for more coherent management of information between all pillars of humanitarian actors. One of the key goals of all our partnerships with local and civil society organisations is to ensure that they can efficiently contribute to that sharing of vital information on local action which often gets overlooked by global audiences. Our collaborative work with ADRRN and others in the Asia Pacific region is helping to create that solid foundation from which more innovative and interoperable solutions can emerge.
One of MapAction’s aims is to help disaster management agencies around the world to use vital geospatial and data analysis tools in their work. By doing so we can deepen how effective and impactful the sector can be, both when emergencies strike or in advance by enabling regional communities and organisations to reduce their risks.
With this in mind, we work with our partners at the Centre for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR), a body established to decrease the risk of emergencies across Central Asia. In line with our usual training programme, we worked together to develop and deliver three training sessions in April and May of this year.
The initial training was in Tashkent – the first time MapAction has trained personnel in Uzbekistan. Three of our members – Alistair Wilkie, Katharina Lorenz and Richard Phillips – provided a week-long course of tailored basic training aimed to introduce and raise awareness of humanitarian and emergency mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Information Management, allowing attendees to become familiar with some basic techniques.
In mid-May MapAction members Chris Ewing, Mark Gillick and Colin Spiller delivered training in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. As we have trained many CESDRR members in basic techniques over the past few years, this was a more advanced course exploring operational readiness and testing participants under time and pressure constraints in simulated scenarios.
Training CESDRR members in Kyrgyzstan
Finally, at the end of May, Members Alistair Wilkie, Dominic Greenslade and Mark Gillick, delivered another advanced course for the regional and national offices of the emergency agencies in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where we have delivered several courses previously.
The courses were all well received and helped to cement and enhance MapAction’s long-standing partnership with CESDRR, and to strengthen valuable GIS skills that are crucial in disaster response and humanitarian aid distribution. Again with CESDRR, we are planning to deliver training in Tajikistan next year.
One of the Nur-Sultan course participants commented, “I would like to note the work of the best specialists in the field of QGIS mapping, wonderful MapAction (members) – Mark, Colin and Chris, who trained the participants of the training for 5 days, and distinguished themselves by their literacy, cognition, accessibility, professionalism, feedback, responsiveness and decency.”
A significant part of what MapAction does as an organisation is making sure other agencies around the world are ready to respond when crises arise and can use vital GIS tools in their work.
For a week in June, my MapAction colleague Darren and I supported the training of almost 30 members of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, which is part of the international emergency response system for sudden-onset emergencies.
The training event was held in Lima, Peru which not only meant a long flight but everything, including the training, was in Spanish. As a native speaker, this was ideal for me! Having also just undertaken MapAcion’s ‘Operational Readiness Course’, it felt like the perfect time to go on my first official ‘deployment’ as a MapAction volunteer.
MapAction often works with UNDAC during emergencies, so it was a great opportunity to make some contacts and meet others in the humanitarian sector, often people from different backgrounds and with a wide range of experiences. It was really beneficial for me to understand the way in which UNDAC works, and for me to ascertain the levels of knowledge of the new trainees in terms of GIS and the data that needs to be collected.
Sunday was all about introductions and ensuring the team knew about MapAction, how we work and how we support UNDAC in emergency situations. Monday saw the start of a three-day and three night simulation exercise which involved delegates being split into four teams and ‘travelling’, along with ourselves, to a ‘country’ that had just experienced an earthquake.
Darren and I had dual roles; we participated as MapAction and supported all of the teams in the geospatial elements of the simulation, we were also part of the exercise coordination team. From the data collected during the exercise, Darren and I developed a number of GIS products and maps that helped identify humanitarian needs and tell the unfolding story of the crisis. Although they were long days, being part of the team 24/7 meant that we made some really strong bonds.
As well as it being great for my personal and professional development, and confidence building, I now feel more confident that I can handle the pressure of a deployment to a humanitarian crisis.
Aside from volunteering, I work as a Geospatial Consultant at the Satellite Applications Catapult and I am part of a team focused on ensuring that the International Development & Humanitarian sector is maximising the opportunities that satellite-enabled geospatial data and technologies can provide.
This first ‘deployment’ has also allowed me to travel around Peru and visit some extraordinary places such as Machu Picchu. It was a very valuable experience and I now feel ready to deploy when an emergency happens.
MapAction’s Chief Executive, Liz Hughes, and senior geospatial expert member, Alan Mills, are at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. They are representing MapAction at the twelfth session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), under MapAction’s official observer status.
The event, held from 3 – 5 August 2022 (side events from 1 August), comprises designated Member State experts and relevant international organisations. It seeks to promote international cooperation in global geospatial information management and provide an international forum for coordination and dialogue.
Led by Member States, UN-GGIM sessions seek to address global challenges regarding the production, availability and application of geospatial information, including in development agendas and policymaking. This includes joint decision-making and setting directions towards nationally integrated geospatial information management within national, regional and global policy frameworks and development agendas.
MapAction’s Alan Mills presented and was a panel member at the ‘Geospatial Information and Services for Disasters’ side event on 1 August. He discussed the challenges and suggested ways to apply geospatial information across complex humanitarian problems.
Disaster responses can take many forms and include multiple stakeholders, but he put forward that whatever the combination of these complex dimensions, reliable, consistent and well presented information, geographical information in particular, is essential. This will allow those involved to understand and identify the vulnerabilities and risks, what is happening, who has been affected and what resources people need to recover.
He drew on the experience MapAction has in supporting governments, international and regional agencies, civil society organisations and communities. He then outlined four brief scenarios that highlight the need for sharing timely, accurate, information, analysing it effectively and communicating through good visualisation. The intention was to show that UN-GGIM can and should provide the gold standard, allowing humanitarian and emergency response workers to relieve suffering and leave no one behind.
MapAction Chief Executive Liz Hughes said: “MapAction has been working to help manage global humanitarian crises for 20 years. We therefore have a lot of experience to share, in terms of how we have worked with governments, UN and other agencies and civil society organisations. We want to strengthen the system and are looking at ways to increase protection and reduce vulnerability. UN-GGIM provides a great forum to meet with other experts in the field and to jointly set the future agenda.”
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) deliver much of the world’s humanitarian aid, build resilience against disaster and advocate for many of the world’s poorest people. Enabling them to take advantage of information and data technology, in-line with other parts of the humanitarian sector, needs to be a priority.
MapAction is working with several CSO networks, exploring how we can share our knowledge of humanitarian mapping and information management. We held a session at Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) which was intended to share our range of experiences, highlight learning and challenges and see more CSOs being supported in this way.
The session aimed to highlight the huge amounts of information management that the civil society sector does. It was also a space to learn about the barriers that prevent CSOs from gathering, using and sharing data, not just within the CSO networks but between them and governments, regional agencies and international humanitarian systems. We wanted to share our experiences of working with CSOs and to use this platform to advocate for more support to these valuable organisations.
It also considered how the humanitarian sector can better support CSOs and accelerate their adoption of new technologies for information management, mapping and data science etc, as we all grapple with a wide range of anticipation, programming, monitoring and evaluation challenges.
As well as looking at the bottlenecks, the session looked at some of the challenges, such as: how to access good information; avoid poor use; allow for easy and efficient information exchange; and how organisations might be able to do all this with already stretched funding and capacity constraints.
See the zoom recording of the session below
The Humanitarian Networking and Partnerships Week (HNPW) is run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). It provides a forum to address key humanitarian issues. Throughout the three weeks, participants and partnerships shared their expertise and collaborated on best practices to address shared problems.
As part of a growing trend, humanitarians are now anticipating crises and acting prior to their onset, enabling faster, more dignified and more cost-effective humanitarian responses. Using data and analytical approaches we can now predict humanitarian shocks brought about by extreme weather, conflict and a range of other sources with increasing confidence.
Geospatial data, data visualisation and information management are critical to this type of anticipatory action. As a trusted leader in these fields MapAction has been selected to partner with Start Network to assist with their programmes of anticipatory and early action.
MapAction will use its expertise to provide hazard data analysis, real time hazard data, base maps and vulnerability analysis to the network. Together, we aim to provide locally led anticipatory action to enhance the coordination of disaster risk nationally.
The three year programme will see MapAction providing Start Network with data for eight vulnerable countries where it is implementing anticipatory finance projects. This will involve MapAction providing local information and visualisations for critical early decision making as well as implementation support.
Liz Hughes, MapAction’s CEO, said, “We are very excited to be working on this project as we believe it can make a real and lasting difference for disaster affected populations. MapAction will provide Start Network and its members with a combination of historical and real time hazard data analysis, vulnerability analysis, maps and more. By converting all of that into usable situational information and visualisations for critical early decision making, we can enable better informed humanitarian decisions, and ultimately save lives and reduce suffering.”
This work is being made possible by a consortium of partners including members of the Insurance Development Forum and Swiss Re Foundation, who aim to improve global risk understanding in order to help create equal opportunities and sustainable growth.
MapAction has been awarded £25,000 by the Lloyd’s Market Charity Awards in recognition of our disaster response and preparedness work.
The award will be used to enhance MapAction’s operational capability to help different regional and national emergency management bodies prepare for future humanitarian emergencies, and to help with responses to shocks and emergencies when they occur.
We were selected to receive this generous donation thanks to the efforts of MapAction volunteer and Trustee, Chris Ewing. He applied for the award on our behalf in his role as Head of Client Management at Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development centre of Aon Reinsurance Solutions. It’s one of a handful of awards that the Lloyd’s Market hand out every year in response to individual efforts of those who work across the Lloyd’s Corporation and market.
Over the past 12 months Chris has helped produce drought indicator maps for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), as part of a larger UN project using satellite imagery and machine learning to quickly identify areas for pre-emptive funding. He also volunteered through MapAction on a COVID-19 dashboard project with UNICEF and the Mexican Government Ministry of Education.
Chris said: “This award is really fantastic, quite unexpected and we’re really very very grateful for it. I know how crucial every penny is for MapAction and this will help our efforts to mitigate and to respond to crises.”
On 17-19 September, MapAction held it’s largest annual training event, a realistic simulation of a humanitarian emergency, with colleagues from partners including the British Red Cross, Insecurity Insight, Save the Children and Tearfund.
This exercise provides an opportunity for MapAction team volunteers and staff to hone skills, share learning, test protocols and embed new systems and technologies in a challenging but safe environment. It’s also a chance to catch up with friends and strengthen team relationships. Due to COVID-19, this is the first major training exercise of this kind we have held since June 2019, so it was great to be back in the thick of it again.
We are proud to be supporting the delivery of an online course in crisis mapping in the Caribbean this month. The training course will involve around 50 disaster management professionals from across the Caribbean and is in partnership with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), with input from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).
This is the second time the online course has been run, and we used our extensive deployment and training experience in the design and development of it.
Screenshot of the GeoCRIS showing a map of part of Western Haiti with several map layers selected
As well as learning the principles of disaster mapping for response and resilience and OpenStreetMap data entry, the participants are practicing effective use of the GeoCRIS. This is the new regional repository for geospatial data needed for risk and hazard mapping, disaster preparedness and response operations. As MapAction was involved in setting up the GeoCRIS, we are well placed to design and deliver this training.
The month-long course also includes a disaster simulation exercise in which the students will have the opportunity to deploy their newly acquired skills in a realistic emergency scenario. Additionally, two members of MapAction’s Caribbean volunteer team who have both recently been involved in the response to the La Soufrière volcanic eruption will be running a live session to share their real-world experiences of emergency mapping in the region and answer questions.
We’re grateful to USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) for funding this activity as part of our ongoing programme to improve the ways in which geographical information systems (GIS), mapping and spatial analysis are used in humanitarian emergencies.
In March 2020, MapAction and the UN OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Centre for Humanitarian Data embarked on a new level of collaboration by sharing a Data Scientist’s time between the two organisations. Both teams had a lot to offer and learn from each other, with MapAction bringing its geospatial expertise to the Centre’s Predictive Analytics (PA) team. Predictive analytics is a form of data science that uses current and historical facts to predict future events. For MapAction, this collaboration also constituted an important aspect of our Moonshot, which sees us transitioning from being a passive data consumer to an organisation that actively contributes to humanitarian datasets.
2020 Highlights
Looking back on our work over the past year, we can see how this collaboration has benefitted both organisations in many ways, with numerous positive repercussions more widely. Ultimately, the fruits of our joint working are examples of how data science can help to reduce suffering and save lives in humanitarian initiatives.
“Your input leap-frogged us forward. It is amazing to me how quickly we were able to do this together. A round of applause for your work and its contribution to unlocking critically needed aid for Ethiopians.“
Josée Poirier, Predictive Analytics Technical Specialist, Centre for Humanitarian Data
Preventing hunger
In the latter part of the year, a MapAction team of volunteers helped the Centre’s PA team develop analysis for a drought-related anticipatory action framework which was designed to trigger mitigation activities ahead of a predicted drought crisis. The PA team aimed to better understand the reliability of various indicators used to predict potential food shortages caused by drought in Somalia and Ethiopia. These indicators were then used to trigger an early release of funds from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The MapAction team reviewed past literature, evaluated available satellite images, and created a prototype drought model in Google Earth Engine (a platform for visualising and analysing satellite imagery of Earth). These inputs helped the PA team to flag an upcoming crisis in Ethiopia and trigger an activation for a humanitarian response. In the words of Josée Poirier, Predictive Analytics Technical Specialist from the PA team: “Your input leap-frogged us forward. It is amazing to me how quickly we were able to do this together. A round of applause for your work and its contribution to unlocking critically needed aid for Ethiopians.”
Flood mapping
The MapAction and PA teams also collaborated to implement and validate an approach for mapping flooding from satellite imagery. MapAction’s Data Scientist has been working with the PA team to help evaluate the impact of recent anticipatory action in Bangladesh which took place in July 2020 and was the fastest-ever allocation of CERF funds. To better understand how this aid was helpful to those affected, the PA team needs to know exactly when, where, and for how long flooding occurred. Contributing to this work also has direct benefits for MapAction’s own work, enabling us to add a new data processing method to our disaster-response toolbox. We then had the opportunity to test this methodology in our response to the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Eta and Iota in Central America.
MapAction was able to test the flood-mapping methodology developed with the Centre for Humanitarian Data in the response to Hurricanes Eta and Iota in Central America. Photo: European Union, 2020 (D Membreño)
COVID-19
Both organisations have made commitments to assist in the global pandemic response. The Centre PA team and MapAction Data Scientist have, in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), developed a model to forecast the number of cases, hospitalisations, and deaths due to COVID-19 for six countries, tailored to each country’s specific humanitarian needs. Named OCHA-Bucky, the model offers sub-national projections, and takes into the account the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Presently, MapAction is participating in a pilot project to aid vaccine rollout in vulnerable countries by surveying the current data landscapes and identify gaps in order to address the logistical challenges inherent in such tasks. Along a similar line of work, the Centre PA team and APL are planning on adding vaccination strategies to the OCHA-Bucky model.
Projected total infections per 100,000 inhabitants in Afghanistan on 2020-08-03. Projections were obtained by simulating local transmission in each district in Afghanistan and expected spatial and temporal spread between districts. Country-specific risk factors were included in the simulation at the subnational level.
Shared goals
There is substantial overlap between the broad technical goals of the two organisations. The Centre’s Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) contains over 18,000 datasets and it has created several automatic pipelines (software that carries out a series of data-processing steps) to systematically ingest data from its partners into its database. The Centre’s technical expertise has so far been a key input into the planning and development of a similar (albeit smaller scale) pipeline at MapAction, which is being created to automate the generation of core maps as part of the Moonshot initiative. This work will ensure that base maps essential for coordinating any type of humanitarian response are immediately available whenever they are needed.
The two organisations share similar data access platforms and are actively engaged in ongoing discussions regarding different ways to construct pipeline software. Finally, both HDX and MapAction ultimately seek to identify and rectify gaps in the humanitarian data landscape in order to ensure that those coordinating the preparations for and responses to different types of emergencies have the reliable, timely information they need.
Looking ahead in 2021
MapAction and the Centre for Humanitarian Data are continuing to plan ways to collaborate throughout the rest of the year and beyond.
In addition to sharing expertise in advanced analytics, we are working to make data-driven methods accessible to wider audiences in the humanitarian sector in order to improve the effectiveness of aid programmes. MapAction and the Centre’s Data Literacy team have identified an opportunity to come together to develop GIS training material. This work aims to help non-technical humanitarians make better use of geospatial data to understand the needs of affected communities and coordinate aid.
Both teams are also collaborating to ensure that our data science workflows and models are published openly and can be used by others in the field. Inspired by initiatives such as The Turing Way, we are formalising and adopting best practices to write high quality code, document methodologies, and reproduce results.
At the end of the first year of our collaboration, it is gratifying to reflect on how much we have been able to achieve together while learning from each other and expanding our collective knowledge. We’re grateful to the German Federal Foreign Office for making this work possible by funding our Data Scientist role. We’re looking forward to continuing to work together to push forward the boundaries of humanitarian data science.
Launched today, the Caribbean Risk Information System (CRIS) is a “one stop shop” for gathering and sharing information and data on disaster risk management and climate change adaptation across the Caribbean region.
The CRIS platform has been created by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in collaboration with the World Bank and other partners including MapAction, with financial support from the European Union (EU).
CRIS aims to support informed decision making by providing access to information on all types of hazards, including climate-induced hazards, as well as guidance on how to reduce risk, build disaster-resilient states and promote sustainable development. It consists of a Virtual Library, databases and the GeoCRIS – a geospatial component which provides access to geospatial data needed for risk and hazard mapping, disaster preparedness and response operations. Data from the Caribbean Handbook on Risk Information Management (CHaRIM) GeoNode has been integrated into the GeoCRIS to facilitate evidence-based decision making and development planning processes.
Screenshot of the GeoCRIS showing a map of part of Western Haiti with several map layers selected
MapAction provided advice on strategic, technical and personnel issues related to creating the GeoCRIS, based on its years of experience of developing similar systems. We particularly assisted in defining needs for data and tools to support the Rapid Needs Assistance Team (RNAT) and other rapid-response mechanisms within CDEMA as we have partnered alongside CDEMA following several devastating hurricanes in the past five years. We will also be helping CDEMA to train disaster management teams across the Caribbean region in using GeoCRIS once travel restrictions are lifted.
We’re grateful to the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance for funding our participation in this project.
Two MapAction members contributed to a one-hour discussion of how use of collaborative networks and advances in geospatial technology can improve humanitarian outcomes in urban settings. Professor Melinda Laituri of Colorado State University and the Secondary Cities initiative was Chair of the event, with talks from Alan Mills and Chris Ewing, both of MapAction.
Entitled Cities, humanitarianism and using geospatial analysis to mitigate risk, the online event looked at collaborative approaches to addressing global humanitarian issues.
Alan Mills and Chris Ewing shared insights gleaned from their work aimed at supporting urban resilience and emergency preparedness and response, in particular through working with, building, supporting and mobilising civil society networks. They also discussed recent technical innovations such as automated mapping.
This was followed by a question and answer session exploring some aspects further as questioned by the audience.
Chaired and Hosted by:
Melinda Laituri, Professor, Ecosystem Science and Sustainability & Director of the Geospatial Centroid at Colorado State University and Principal Investigator of the Secondary Cities Initiative.
Speakers
Chris Ewing, MapAction Trustee and Volunteer – a keen physical geographer, Chris has over 10 years’ experience in the (re)insurance and engineering sectors. In his day job at Aon Impact Forecasting, Chris helps organizations better quantify natural catastrophe risk. He has volunteered with MapAction since 2007.
Alan Mills, MapAction Consultant and Volunteer – a volunteer since 2005 and former trustee, Alan also leads on building data preparedness partnerships. He has his own consultancy business specializing in GIS and remote sensing in international development and has 30 years experience in operations.
Since March this year, a MapAction data scientist has been based at the Centre for Humanitarian Data in The Hague, supporting its workstream on predictive analytics. The aim of this important work is to forecast humanitarian emergencies and needs in order to trigger responses before a disaster occurs.
One of the projects the Centre’s predictive analytics team is working on, in partnership with the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and individual country offices of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is the development of COVID-19 modelling tailored for each country’s specific context. This seeks to predict the scale, severity and duration of the outbreak within each country, including its likely effects on particularly vulnerable groups, such as people at risk of hunger or those using solid fuel indoors for cooking.
The project is also modelling the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as curfews, travel bans and face masks, according to what is locally viable.
The inclusion of country-specific factors, looking at projections for specific vulnerable groups as well as the general population at a sub national level, can make this work particularly helpful for governments and humanitarian organisations to inform their COVID planning.
Projected total infections per 100,000 inhabitants in Afghanistan on 2020-08-03. Projections are obtained by simulating local transmission in each district in Afghanistan and expected spatial and temporal spread between districts. Country-specific risk factors are included in the simulation at the subnational level.
The initial model was developed for Afghanistan and is now being extended to other priority countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Sudan.
MapAction has been helping its partners the World Food Program (WFP) and Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) to distribute mobile app questionnaires about availability of and access to food during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past several years, we have been working with CDEMA and other organisations to build a network of GIS professionals in the Caribbean region (and elsewhere) with a shared interest in disaster preparedness and information management. We were able to use this network to help disseminate the questionnaire as widely as possible across the region in order to gather information about potential food shortages once incidences of the virus escalate.
A MapAction team member currently based in New Zealand is providing GIS, mapping and information management support to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Asia and the Pacific (ROAP).
Over the next two months, he will be helping ROAP to support countries that have limited public health infrastructure and resources to cope with the rapid onset of COVID-19. He will be assisted in this work by MapAction’s team of volunteers.
ROAP covers 41 countries in Asia and the Pacific and currently supports these countries in their efforts to ramp up preparedness and response through the UN Resident Coordinators and their offices, as well as local governments.
MapAction has formed a new partnership with the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) Humanitarian Assistance to help improve the use of technology and data in humanitarian decision making.
As part of the broad-ranging programme, MapAction is working on
greatly reducing the time and effort required to create maps and data products needed
in many emergencies, by automating repeat processes. It is also extending its
capacity to have specialist personnel in emergency situations for longer
periods to support information management and decision-making processes, and
placing a data scientist in the Centre for Humanitarian Data in The Hague to
facilitate knowledge sharing.
MapAction Chief Executive Liz Hughes said, “This is an exciting
programme which will help to keep us at the vanguard of humanitarian response
missions, but also, vitally, to overhaul our technical offer. This will enable
us to continue to help ensure the best possible outcomes for people affected by
disasters and humanitarian emergencies. We are very pleased to be working with
GFFO and looking forward very much to getting stuck in to this important work together.”
Two MapAction members are currently in Tallinn, Estonia, participating in and helping to facilitate a course for UN On-Site Operations Coordination Centre (OSOCC) Assessment and Analysis Cell teams. Participants are looking in detail at ways in which data and analysis can inform fast-moving and chaotic emergency situations.
At the end of October, two MapAction volunteers participated in a UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) refresher training course in Neuhausen, Germany. As well as presenting to participants on humanitarian mapping, they supported the simulation exercise with mapping.
These regular training courses enable all involved to enhance and update their skills and knowledge and share insights from disaster responses.
One MapAction participant described the course as a “fantastic week”, while the other described the UNDAC trainees as a “Really dedicated team with interesting first hand experiences from Idai and Dorian.”
We’re grateful to the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance for supporting this important disaster preparedness work.
This week, a MapAction volunteer has been participating in discussions and strengthening relationships with our partners at the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) Information Management Working Group and Team Leaders meetings in Santiago, Chile. These conversations enable us to continuously improve how we visualise data collected by INSARAG teams.
Thanks to the USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance for supporting our participation, as part of our joint programme to improve the ways in which geographical information systems (GIS), mapping and spatial analysis are used in humanitarian emergencies.
Today is World Humanitarian Day and the theme this year is Women Humanitarians. I find that an interesting theme. I am, indeed, personally grateful to all the female humanitarians – including our own volunteers and staff – who inspire, challenge, advise, listen and make a difference. As well as experiencing barriers to participation in formal humanitarian responses, women are often also at greater risk in emergency situations. So anything that highlights and begins to address these issues is to be welcomed.
World Humanitarian Day is often interpreted as being about the workers, not the affected communities. Yet, it seems to me that humanitarianism is in fact about people’s suffering and what helps. So, in general, I think the message should be about the amazing survivors of conflict and disaster, the ways communities recover together and the women in those communities who contribute to that.
It is good to make note of differences of perspective (gender being just one), but we need to take care that that is not where our acknowledgement of difference starts and stops, with just one day. If we want to promote a really inclusive humanitarianism, we need to think about these differences and contributions every day, and make our efforts towards inclusion and diversity part of the way we live and work. There is much more work to be done.
To this end, we are in the process of examining in detail and systematically improving our own working practices. During our monthly team training weekend in July, our Diversity Working Group presented the findings of a recent team survey on the topic of diversity within MapAction. Although the sample size was too small to be statistically significant, it enabled us to ask some good questions. Together we discussed some concrete next steps. We will share more on these once they are more fully developed.
By Lavern Rogers-Ryan, MapAction Caribbean Section volunteer
When the call came for Caribbean volunteers to apply to MapAction, I was keen to sign up. Having followed the work of this organisation and the amazing group of people who work as volunteers, I saw this as an awesome opportunity for me to contribute to the work of saving lives.
Living in Montserrat, with an active volcano and being privy to how devastating disasters can be, I was grateful for the prospect of being able to use my skills in geospatial technologies to contribute to humanitarian efforts during a disaster. My mind quickly raced back to the impact Hurricanes Irma and Maria had on my neighboring Caribbean Islands, in 2017. I wanted to be in a better position to offer assistance if a situation like that – God-forbid – presented itself again.
I therefore submitted an application to the organisation and not very long after, I was greeted with an email inviting me to an ‘assessment day’. Needless to say, I was very happy to advance to the next stage.
The assessment day turned out to be very interesting. Surprisingly, during the introductory session, I was reintroduced to the Head of the MapAction Caribbean Section, who reminded me that we met while he visited Montserrat in another capacity several years before. Moreover, the gentleman who is the Preparedness Lead for MapAction worked in Montserrat briefly on a project back in the early 2000s. I found it to be very fascinating how unsuspectingly our paths crossed again! In addition, hearing the testimony of a fellow MapAction volunteer sort of sealed the deal for me. He explained what being a volunteer all entailed and how my skills can contribute to saving lives.
Overall, this interview process was detailed enough to ensure that I was a good fit for MapAction. Amongst other skills, the panel assessed team spirit, leadership potential and the knowledge and application of geographic information systems (GIS) tools and software.
Receiving another email shortly after assessment day, entitled, “MapAction Caribbean Section – Interview Outcome”, I nervously but anxiously opened it. The words that bounced from my computer screen, read: “Congratulations, you have been selected to join our Caribbean Team!”
This was awesome news and I am absolutely thrilled to be apart of the MapAction family and be able to contribute to society in this capacity.
I look forward to sharing more about the work of MapAction and my experiences in future blogs.
Lavern Rogers-Ryan is a geospatial consultant specialising in disaster risk management and recovery. She is currently head of the GIS Centre within the Government of Montserrat.
This week MapAction is in Sentul, Indonesia, to support an induction training course for the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC).
As well as supporting an earthquake simulation exercise with mapping, three MapAction members are delivering training on GPS, information management and the use of maps for humanitarian response.
MapAction regularly provides training and support to UNDAC’s induction courses that take place around the world for new team members
Our participation in this training was made possible thanks to the support of the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance. OFDA provides us with grant funding to help us improve the use of maps, geographical information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis across the humanitarian sector to improve the impact of humanitarian aid.
A programme of training for disaster management teams across Kazakhstan has been continuing this week. Employees of the Department for Emergency Situations of Almaty, the East Kazakhstan and Pavlodar regions have been learning about geographic information systems (GIS), data management and mapping on a course jointly provided by MapAction and the region’s Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR).
The training is part of an ongoing programme of work which sees CESDRR and MapAction collaborating to enhance the use of mapping and information management to improve and expand disaster preparedness, relief and recovery activities across Central Asia. We’re very grateful to US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) for funding this work.
Three MapAction volunteers are currently in Ust-Kamenogorsk in East Kazakhstan. Next week they will move to Atyrau in the West of the country to repeat the course with another group of local emergency management personnel. In August, two further courses will take place in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Two MapAction training courses are in progress in Trinidad & Tobago this week.
Three MapAction team members are privileged to be working with members of civil protection response teams from Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Surinam. We are collaborating to share geospatial skills and experiences to support readiness for response to communities.
In the region, hurricanes and storms are a key concern, but several countries also respond to a multitude of different concerns affecting their citizens including earthquakes and other seismic risks.
We are very grateful for the support of The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management of Trinidad & Tobago for their support. This is part of an ongoing joint programme we are carrying out with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). We have already run humanitarian mapping courses with CDEMA in Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados and Jamaica. This important work is funded by US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).
Training MapAction’s latest recruits
Also in Trinidad & Tobago this week, the newest members of MapAction’s Caribbean section are being put through their paces on our Conversion Course which, through a combination of theory and practical exercises, prepares our GIS expert volunteers for deployments to humanitarian emergencies.
The week-long course covers numerous topics including sources and collection of humanitarian data, mapping in emergency conditions, priority needs and the timeline of a response.
Last week, a MapAction team was in Morges, Switzerland, training United Nations Disaster Assessment & Coordination (UNDAC) team members from around the world in humanitarian mapping as part of a two-week intensive induction course.
UNDAC training courses take place regularly throughout the year in different countries and MapAction is often involved, providing mapping support to emergency simulation exercises as well as teaching GIS skills.
We’re grateful to USAID’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance for making our participation in this and other UNDAC training courses possible.
Three MapAction team members are currently in Kostanay, Kazakhstan, teaching national civil defence and emergency responders how to create and use humanitarian maps. Next week they move to the capital Astana (Nur-Sultan) to provide the same training to local teams there.
These courses are the latest in a series of workshops we are providing as part of an ongoing joint programme of disaster preparedness activity with our regional partner, the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR). Our partnership with CESDRR aims to improve and expand disaster preparedness, relief and recovery activities across Central Asia.
We’re grateful to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for funding this important collaborative work.
Earlier this year we embarked on a round of volunteer recruitment to find mapping and geographical information system (GIS) experts living and working in the Caribbean. The aim was to expand our small team in the region to ensure we are always well placed to help prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies across the Caribbean, working with our close partner the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). This includes pre-positioning personnel when necessary to provide mapping and data support in the event of severe tropical storms.
We are delighted to now welcome three exceptionally high-calibre volunteers who bring a tremendous amount of additional knowledge, expertise and energy to an already very strong Caribbean team.
Deanesh Ramsewak
Deanesh lives in Trinidad and is a lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Maritime and Ocean Studies (CMOS) of the University of Trinidad and Tobago. He teaches GIS and remote sensing and has recently worked on a multi-agency research project funded by NASA, using drones for studying coastal ecosystems. His work has been published in international and regional journals and he is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
My interest in MapAction began after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake. The response by MapAction volunteers to it, as well as to other Caribbean disasters since then, inspired me to join the humanitarian effort.
Deanesh Ramsewak
Deanesh also volunteers as a mentor for the Caribbean Youth Science Forum (CYSF), the longest standing non-formal STEM education programme in the region, as well as for a local non-profit organisation called Restore a Sense of I Can (RSC) which seeks to effect change through technology and education. In his free time he enjoys travelling, meeting new people, swimming and yoga.
Lavern Ryan
Lavern is from the beautiful Caribbean island of Montserrat where she lives and works as a GIS Manager. She loves travelling, meeting new people and learning about new cultures. She especially loves star gazing!
Following the events of the 2017 hurricane season, I wanted to use my skills more to help mitigate against the impacts of disasters. When the call came for Caribbean GIS professionals to join MapAction, I was further inspired. I am passionate about GIS and I want to use my knowledge and skills to help people when they are most in need and to help to save lives. MapAction provides the platform for me to do just that!
Lavern Ryan
Mike Clerveaux
Mike is currently the Hazard Mitigation and GIS Specialist within the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME), Turks and Caicos Islands. He is an Urban and Regional Planner by profession and holds a Masters degree in Built Environment with a specialisation in Geomatics. He joined the Disaster Management Team in 2016 and that same year was part of the CDEMA Regional Response Mechanism that was deployed to the Bahamas following Hurricane Matthew, which was when he first encountered MapAction.
Prior to joining DDME, Mike was a volunteer in Damage and Needs Assessment (DANA) as well as lead facilitator for them. Outside of Disaster Management, Mike is happily married with three girls. He enjoys carpentry and coaching basketball.
“Ever since Hurricane Matthew, I was eager to be a part of MapAction. I look forward to serving in this new capacity and being a part of the MapAction family.”
