Data for action
Data is an essential tool for the planners of operational/programmatic response in humanitarian, development and peace building contexts. They enable decision-makers and humanitarian partners to maximize resources and deliver efficiently and better-targeted humanitarian and post-crisis programs. Data also underpin early warning, preparedness and disaster risk reduction, as highlighted in several international instruments such as the 2015-2030 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
In disaster response, big data has already proven its value. IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) used text mining tools and visualization systems to enable the provision of shelter and other necessities for Filipinos displaced by typhoon Haiyan (2013). The Swedish non-profit Flowminder used de-identified data from mobile-phone operators to assess mobility and provide humanitarian aid after the earthquakes in Haiti (2010) and Nepal (2015) as well as during the Ebola crisis in West Africa (2014). After a severe earthquake hit Nepal in April 2015, leaving about 2.8 million people internally displaced, Flowminder was able to trace the flow of about 400,000 people within less than two weeks in the aftermath of the earthquake by analyzing call detail records (IOM and McKinsey, 2018).
Migration data can also support the design of policies that would address the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the journey or help migrants to make decisions that increase the cost-effectiveness of the remittances they send home. For example, in addition to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide dataset, several countries have introduced national databases on the cost of sending remittances. Such databases provide updated and more granular information to migrants and represent one of the most efficient means to improve transparency in the market. Many of these national and regional databases have adopted the World Bank Group’s methodological standards and provide information that is consistent and easily understandable by users (GMG, 2017).
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Case Study: Data for Action (IOM, 2021) The data produced by IOM’s DTM in 2021 was used as a full or partial data source for 84 per cent (21 out of 25) of the Humanitarian Needs Overviews and Humanitarian Response Plans developed for the year, paving the way for stronger partnerships and more timely, efficient, and targeted humanitarian responses. In 2021, IOM South Sudan led a comprehensive emergency response in Rubkona County of Unity State to protect close to 300,000 Internally displaced persons (IDP), host communities, and returnees from flooding through emergency Disaster Risk Reduction interventions, while addressing the most urgent needs of over 55,000 newly flood-displaced IDPs in Bentiu Town and 112,329 IDPs within the country’s largest IDP site. The multi-sectoral assistance provided to IDPs, host communities, and returnees was based on a comprehensive conflict sensitivity analysis and DTM’s population movement data. In 2018, the acceleration of the insurgency in the northern provinces of Nigeria displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals. IOM’s DTM assisted the National Population Commission by registering almost 40,000 children under the age of five in camps using biometric registration data to facilitate the issuance of birth certificates. |