This is the M&E Thursday Talk from Thursday, March 21st, when Sam Scarpino, Chief of Strategy at the Dharma Platform, led a discussion on “Real-time Data from the Front Lines: Humanitarian Uses of Emerging Technology.”
Agencies are increasingly partnering with tech organizations to innovate and shape the development of new technologies to solve for the lack of real-time, quality data and insights during humanitarian crises. The accuracy and timeliness of this data is directly tied to informed decision making, which affects lives and livelihoods. This is further complicated by the fact that in many emergency, rural and/org under-resourced settings, internet access may be limited or non-existent.
Sam Scarpino explained how a web-based, cloud data solution, Dharma Platform, has worked to address humanitarian uses of emerging technology. He also demonstrated how Dharma has been able to facilitate efficient, effective data collection, analysis, and project management–both online and offline–in conflict zones.
Additionally, Sam highlighted Dharma’s design and deployment of Emergency Data Kits and the use of mesh networking to overcome the lack of ground-truth information where no connectivity exists. Following the presentation, participants asked numerous questions and discussed the future of new technologies in the field.