Humanitarian Assistance

Gisli Olafsson of NetHope Inc. in the U.S. will work to improve humanitarian information management to better inform decision-making in emergency situations, such as after a natural disaster. In a crisis situation, information on what is needed and what is being done comes from different humanitarian organizations, but these data often do not conform to universal standards or are not made generally available. She will consult experts from the private sector and incorporate best practices from different existing data standards efforts.

H.V. Jagadish of the University of Michigan in the U.S. will take disparate datasets on diverse topics, including education, health, and the environment, which are often reported using different geographical units such as Zip Code or County, and realign them to a common unit so they can be better compared and used. Jagadish will develop four general techniques for aligning data partitions and apply them to existing datasets in one state in the U.S. so that they can be viewed according to different geographical units.

Wayan Vota of Development Gateway in the U.S. will combine data generated by citizens and governments into an interactive interface that can be easily accessed and used by average citizens in order to improve their communities. They will focus on education in three Nairobi slums, and engage the local community and government.

Vijay Modi and colleagues of Columbia University in the U.S. will create a universal database to centralize the mapping of social infrastructures, such as schools, clinics, and water points, to improve data accuracy and help to better coordinate aid efforts. Currently, data collection of physical points occurs across multiple platforms, and is inefficient and difficult to update. They will build and host a web service providing a simple database that is easy to access and edit to promote widespread adoption and thereby sharing and integration of important datasets.

We will reduce ambulance response times by developing a software system leveraging existing infrastructure that optimizes ambulance pre-positioning locations, and provides real-time travel time estimation and route optimization info to drivers.

Spatial project management based on a geographic information system (GIS) can be used in a humanitarian setting to plan optimal location of field hospitals or sanitary installations. This approach is difficult in a disaster setting, since it requires collaborative assessments, complex planning concepts and deep knowledge requirements. It also needs to be mobile, adaptive and usable, especially for complex rural and urban settings. This project is introducing an innovative way to manage 2D and 3D information, especially for spatial-focused projects, in disaster and post disaster context.

Training for health emergencies is fragmented and non-standardized. Humanitarian organizations do not engage the 95% of field-based practitioners nor include an approach to monitoring the application of skills/knowledge. The Humanitarian Training Initiative in partnership with the World Health Organization will be the first to take globally recognized competencies and evidence-based curriculum to standardize training globally. E-Learning modules linked to low-cost mobile technologies will provide an accessible product to the target audience.

Meredith Blake of the ProSocial LLC in the U.S. will recruit a team of television writers, entertainment advisors, and foreign aid experts to develop a network television series that tells the story of aid workers around the world. The series would be the anchor for a public education campaign focusing on the relevance of international aid and its demonstrated record of success.

Jeff Snell of Marquette University in the U.S. will work with writers David Bornstein (How to Change the World) and Tina Rosenberg (Pulitzer prize-winning The Haunted Land) to create an interactive digital platform that features case studies focused on successful solutions and innovations that address major social issues (specifically the "Fixes" column in the New York Times). The site will include curriculum plans based on those solutions that can be uploaded and shared by educators.

Marianne Gybels of the 1% CLUB in the Netherlands will develop simple reporting tools for mobile devices that allow people to post stories and data on grassroots aid projects, allow aid users and the local community to comment on the impact of the projects, and connect a global audience to these projects. The tool will be field- tested in Kenya with a focus on 50 healthcare projects.