Last month a few of us came together virtually to discuss the challenges in the humanitarian data ecosystem as highlighted by recent events in Afghanistan. Not everyone could make it who wanted to, but those that did had a rich discussion, a summary of some of the trends are outlined in this post. In addition to broader trends, 10 practical things each organisation can do were also identified and captured in this post.

But one gathering was never going to be enough. It’s not enough time, not all the right people, and so on. So we’ll do it again. And we’ll attempt again to keep the discussions practical with an emphasis on ‘how do we influence system change’ and ‘how do we collectively shift to a more people centred approach to data management’. For some of us this will be about making change in the organisations we work with. For others it will about policies, standards, regulations, research, or the software we build and use. The angle you come at this with matters not, the greater diversity we have, the richer the potential discussion and action.

We’ll hold a call next Thursday (21st) at 1500 UK time. We won’t record it so everyone can feel more free to speak their minds. We like this to be as diverse a group as possible so please share widely and invite colleagues. If you are interested in joining please sign up below.

Photo by Cullan Smith