Karam Hindi
Information Management Associate
Duty Station: Erbil, Iraq
I’d like to find a way to provide dynamic visualized information on humanitarian operations despite changes.
In Iraq, information management is a challenge faced by many, if not all, of the actors involved in the humanitarian operation. The current practices of providing information are in the form of snapshots (e.g. camp profiles, dashboards). The information source for these products is ActivityInfo (an online data collection tool and a common platform).
It is currently available to all the actors where they are required to provide inputs on their activities. These inputs are extracted from ActivityInfo to produce static documents mainly in PDF forms, however, the information provided with these snapshots is often obsolete within just a few days after their release.
In fact, the situation of the humanitarian operation changes constantly and requires providing day-to-day operational activities of more than 100 humanitarian actors to more than 250,000 Syrian refugees (in 10 camps and 4 urban areas), and about 3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in more than 40 camps and 2000 locations dispersed all over the country.
I want to find a solution to this challenge because a dynamic visualization, instead of a static snapshot of the operational activities, would better inform evidence-based plans and solutions to all actors.
As feedback to the inputs provided by the partners, a dynamic visualization tool allows them to:
- Relate and situate their achievements within the achievements of all other partners.
- Be more visible within the entire operation. This would encourage better reporting on the ActivityInfo.
- Filter their achievements in different sectors and locations. They can extract reports if and when needed for their own internal use or external use (e.g. donors and media).