Digital Humanitarian Network
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| Digital Humanitarian Network | |
|---|---|
| Name | Digital Humanitarian Network |
| Formation | 2011 |
| Type | Consortium |
| Headquarters | Virtual |
| Region served | Global |
Digital Humanitarian Network
The Digital Humanitarian Network functioned as a coordination mechanism linking volunteer technical communities such as Ushahidi, OpenStreetMap, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, CrisisMappers Network, and Standby Task Force with formal humanitarian actors including United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organization, and United Nations Children's Fund. It provided rapid-response technical capacity to entities like Médecins Sans Frontières, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Save the Children, Oxfam International, and CARE International during crises such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
Overview
The Network operated as an intermediary between volunteer technical communities including Crisis Text Line, NetHope, Sahana Software Foundation, CartONG, and Translators without Borders and institutional actors such as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World Food Programme, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, and United States Agency for International Development. It coordinated tasks like satellite imagery analysis with partners like Planet Labs, DigitalGlobe, and OpenAerialMap while integrating crowdmapping efforts with platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and GitHub.
History and Formation
Origins trace to interactions following the 2010 Haiti earthquake where organizations such as Ushahidi, OpenStreetMap, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Standby Task Force, and academic groups at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, University of Toronto, University of Oxford, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborated with responders including United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. Formalization occurred amid conferences involving International Association of Emergency Managers, World Humanitarian Summit preparatory meetings, and workshops at institutions like European University Institute and Stanford University.
Structure and Membership
Membership encompassed volunteer technical communities such as Standby Task Force, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Transifex, OpenStreetMap Foundation, Mozilla Foundation-backed initiatives, Interaction Design Foundation collaborators, and research labs including MIT Media Lab. Governance engaged liaison roles with agencies like United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, International Organization for Migration, World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, and donor organizations including Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, UK Department for International Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and United States Agency for International Development.
Activities and Services
Core activities included crisis mapping with OpenStreetMap, verification workflows similar to practices by Reuters, satellite image tasking coordinated with European Space Agency, NASA, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, social media analytics referencing methods from CrisisMappers Network and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and translation coordination alongside Translators without Borders. The Network provided services like volunteer surge capacity used by United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, damage assessment protocols applied during Typhoon Haiyan, needs assessment support for Syrian civil war responses, and epidemic monitoring during Ebola epidemic in West Africa with epidemiological links to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health practices.
Partnerships and Collaborations
The consortium partnered with technology firms such as Google.org, Microsoft humanitarian programs, Facebook Crisis Response, and satellite imagery providers like Maxar Technologies. It collaborated with academic centers including Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, UCL, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and policy institutions like Chatham House and Brookings Institution. Engagements included joint exercises with United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, funding relationships with United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and interoperability projects aligned with standards from International Organization for Standardization and Open Geospatial Consortium.
Impact and Case Studies
Notable interventions involved mapping and data verification in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, coordination during 2011 Libya civil war information flows, volunteer analyses supporting 2013 Typhoon Haiyan response, and crowd-sourced epidemiological support during the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Reports and evaluations referenced practices from Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, ALNAP, OECD, and assessments by United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction demonstrating improved situational awareness for agencies such as World Food Programme and International Committee of the Red Cross.
Challenges and Criticisms
Critiques mirrored debates involving Privacy International and Amnesty International about data privacy, ethical concerns raised by Human Rights Watch regarding remote data collection, and interoperability issues noted by Open Geospatial Consortium and International Organization for Standardization. Operational challenges included volunteer sustainment discussed at Internet Governance Forum, quality assurance critiques from Academic Council on the United Nations System, and coordination limitations highlighted in reviews by ALNAP and European Commission emergency management evaluations.