[ed. note: Data @ IFRC is a blog series to share highlights from data-driven Red Cross Red Crescent national societies, learning opportunities and thought pieces on all things data from ethics to evidence.]
How can we support these existing efforts of data leaders? From youth in Bangladesh to partnerships between humanitarians, researchers and governments, here are some examples of Federation bright spots on our journey to be more data-driven.
Bangladesh Red Crescent and YouthMappers
Students at Dhaka College set up a chapter of YouthMappers. They’ve partnered with the Bangladesh Red Crescent for training and support. The YouthMappers mandate is to not just build maps, but foster a mapping community of leaders.
Sawan Shariar:
“I am a volunteer of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society. And now I am working as Youth Chief of Red Crescent Youth, Dhaka College Unit (RCY,DCU). After successfully completed the Training for Training: OpenStreetMap I realize that, this training will be very useful for the volunteers of RCY, DCU. So I tried to understand my teachers and principal, how it’s effective and importance.”
Read more about their work here.
Data for Typhoon Haima (Philippines)
The Netherlands Red Cross data team prepared map and data products to assist in the Typhoon Haima response in the Philippines. They shared all the items on the Humanitarian Data Exchange. The team partnered with researchers combining government data and machine learning to assist with damage assessment prediction.
See the data and more details on the Humanitarian Data Exchange:
Free Data learning
This week in data learning has a few recommendations:
First off, Until October 30, 2016, Linked In has many courses online for free. I’ll be taking some of the WordPress ones. There is a 1 hour course on Data Visualization (Click here) and a 2 hour course on Data Viz with Excel (click here).
The Tableau conference on November 7 – 11 is being livestreamed. There are some free hands on courses and demos. Sign up here.
Reading
Given that philanthropy supports the heart of what we do, learning more about the over $300 Billion economy (just in the USA alone) seems like a major priority. A recent publication Philanthropy in Democratic Societies is shining a light and ask for critical thinking around the function and role of these big organizations. Happy reading!
Why does Data Literacy Matter
“In the next economy, the most important skills may be difficult to quantify or commodify—but optimizing for human welfare demands that the people driving the innovation economy take them seriously.”
http://www.knightfoundation.org/articles/social-good-in-the-sharing-economy-summit-explores-the-values-of-our-tech-future
