Strengthening Humanitarian Responses: Technology, Data and Evidence-Based Approaches .

Chemonics UK hosted a hybrid event on 5 December 2023 at our offices in London and online via Teams Live Events.

This event convened international development and humanitarian partners, donors, practitioners, and researchers to explore current and emerging technology, data, and evidence-based approaches for informing emergency responses globally.

The event explored examples of where technology, including artificial intelligence and satellite imaging, can improve countries’ responses to emergencies. This included understanding the ability of technology to enhance aspects of responses through imagery of infrastructure damage, data on movement of people, and weather monitoring. The event also examined how technology and data can support complex procurement and supply chains for emergency responses.

An expert panel of speakers addressed key questions including:

• What technology works in different types of responses, ranging from protracted conflict to extreme weather events, including both rapid-onset emergencies to slower-onset ones, such as famines?
• How can decision makers use data and technology-enabled outputs to better manage responses, and what are their profits and perils?
• How can we deploy evidence, data, and technology to ensure the needs of those worst affected by humanitarian emergencies are better met?
• How can technology solve longstanding problems of reliable data within the context of a fast-moving emergency or where access remains an issue?
• How can humanitarian workers be tracked, supported, and protected in fast-moving emergency responses or during travel to conflict-affected areas? How can technology support the safeguarding of vulnerable, affected people?

Chair

Louise Quy, Managing Director, Chemonics UK

Louise brings a wealth of expertise to her role as a passionate and strategic leader, with more than 20 years of progressive commercial and international development experience, working in international trade and development, banking, and professional services. As managing director, Louise provides strategic vision, leadership, commercial acumen, and management to Chemonics’ UK headquarters and its portfolio of international programmes.

Passionate about combating climate change and violence against women, Louise currently serves as a trustee of WeForest and chair of Luminary Bakery. Prior to joining Chemonics Louise worked at Crown Agents, firstly as part of a turnaround team and latterly as chief commercial officer and supply chain lead. In this role, Louise led Crown’s response on both their COVID-19 supply chain offer and their Ukraine response.

Panellists

Nigel Timmins, Humanitarian Consultant, CollaborANTS 

Nigel has worked in international humanitarian assistance since 1996 in a range of roles and locations, starting as a Water and Sanitation Engineer with Action Against Hunger, to Humanitarian Director for Oxfam International. As a consultant since 2022, he has co-authored a series of papers on the performance of the sector with Humanitarian Outcomes, and conducted research on innovation and research for Elrha. Nigel was a founder Trustee of the Start Network and the Global Network for Disaster Reduction, Chair of the CaLP Network for five years and a member of the IASC Emergency Directors Group for three years. He was a co-author of the Core Humanitarian Standard, and a focal point for Disaster Risk Reduction in the 2011 version of the Sphere Handbook. 

Ana de Paiva, Director of Operational Excellence, Connexi

Ana de Paiva is a business process management expert with a focus on end-to-end supply chain processes. She specialises in the application of Lean Six Sigma for services and helping stakeholders grow in their confidence to understand and harness their own data for tangible improvements to their work, including stakeholders at the start of their data analysis journey. She has worked with global health supply chain programmes for over a decade, including most recently in a supporting role within FCDO’s Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU) programme. 

Andy Norris, Senior Geospatial Consultant, Satellite Applications Catapult

Andy is a Senior Geospatial Consultant at the Satellite Applications Catapult with many years of experience applying geospatial technology across a variety of industries. He is a founding member of the Catapult’s international development and humanitarian programme of work, evangelising geospatial to the sector. In his spare time, Andy is an active volunteer with the global disaster relief mapping charity MapAction. 

Dr Rowshan Hannan, Senior Programme Director, Chemonics UK  

Dr Rowshan Hannan has worked in humanitarian emergencies for over 15 years, providing humanitarian advisory and disaster resilience advice to FCDO as a consultant. She has deployed in the immediate aftermath of rapid onset emergencies such as earthquakes and flash flooding, as well as working in protracted conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. She has helped design multiyear humanitarian programmes with UN agencies and non-governmental organisations. Rowshan has also undertaken a number of humanitarian programme reviews to inform existing and future programming. 

Dr Ruth Citrin, Consortium Executive Director, Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) research programme

Dr Ruth Citrin directs research and evidence for Chemonics UK’s XCEPT programme, a FCDO-funded programme which undertakes cross-border conflict research. Ruth brings a rare, proven ability to translate research and analysis into actionable policy and previously served as director for Syria at the White House National Security Council, policy planner on then Secretary John Kerry’s staff, and senior Levant analyst with the US Department of State. She is the former director of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Middle East and North Africa programme.