Timely access to accurate information in the wake of a natural disaster is paramount for humanitarian organizations to swiftly assess the aftermath, locate impacted communities and areas, and identify critical needs. However, up-to-date data is often not available fast enough in the wake of a disaster, creating a missed opportunity to save lives and inform response efforts.
The Data Insights for Social & Humanitarian Action (DISHA) platform is equipped with capabilities to support organizations in planning disaster response deployment and observing the medium/long-term impact of poverty alleviation programs. The solution uses anonymized mobile phone data from telecommunication companies and aggregates them to detect major population movement across target areas. It also correlates utilization of the telco’s products with historical census poverty data to estimate how poverty rates change over time. It is a multi-partner effort led by the UN Global Pulse with McKinsey as its impact partner, and Globe Telecom as the data partner for piloting in The Philippines.
Disaster Risk Management agencies can use the tool to:
