Join us on Thursday, September 13th at 11 a.m. (PDT) for a webinar presentation on mapping the impact of humanitarian assistance, led by Direct Relief’s Director of Research and Analytics, Dr. Andrew Schroeder.
The webinar is co-hosted by esri, the world’s leading producer of GIS software, and Techsoup, a company making cutting-edge software tools available to nonprofit organizations, including Direct Relief, at very low cost.
Over the past five years, Direct Relief has become a world leader in the field of digital mapping for humanitarian assistance. Beginning with strategic investments in enterprise-level geographic information systems (GIS) in 2008, all of Direct Relief’s work around the world has been influenced in significant ways by spatial analysis and interactive mapping for the Web.
Where is humanitarian aid most needed? What are the optimal routes to get it there? What can we know about the communities we aim to serve? Where do the greatest mismatches occur between access to health services and the health needs of communities? Can we detect significant changes either for better or worse?
Spatial analysis shows how patterns which help to answer these and other critical questions are distributed over the surface of the earth. Digital mapping not only brought sophisticated imagery but also spatial intelligence and data-driven decision-making into the mainstream of what Direct Relief does as a global organization serving people who lack resources and are vulnerable.
To date, Direct Relief has used mapping technology to create interactive aid distribution maps to help visualize channels of aid and medical material distribution. The maps provide better understanding of specific conditions, show critical locations to focus disaster preparedness efforts, and give transparency and accountability to our donors. With the interactive maps, users can visualize Direct Relief’s Japan and Haiti aid distribution, U.S. medical aid distribution, hurricane preparedness pack sites and the global fistula map.
Editor’s note: The Global Fistula Map was migrated to the Global Fistula Hub in 2020 to better understand the landscape, known need, and availability of fistula repair services around the world.
