2017 ICT4D Conference

Cash distributions are rapidly becoming the go-to response mechanism for most organisations in emergencies as they present opportunities not previously seen in humanitarian settings. More and more data around Cash Programming projects is being collected digitally, leading to various organisations collecting large quantities of data. While this data may or may not be necessary to collect in the manner and quantities currently prevailing, there is need to coordinate and share information among various actors, particularly in emergency contexts where there is need to move fast, use resources efficiently and reach as many of the affected population as possible.

The Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL) is a standard that makes use of uniform hashtags to allow organisations to share and process critical data in a simple way. This allows an actor to access crucial data that already exists about a location as collected by other agencies. It reduces the amount of resources required to collect information on markets, population movements and price fluctuations and visualize this information in maps and other formats. Protection information, as well as data around spending patterns can also be shared.

This is the direction that humanitarian actors should be taking in order to improve coordination in responses, and get the best value for money for the affected populations. Working together will also allow actors to collectively work to solve the challenges associated with data protection and privacy, particularly in relation to populations in conflict zones.

But what will it take to get everyone on board?