Data For Good Collaboration with Unicef and The Data Lab | Brainnwave

The Challenge

There are currently an estimated 1.1 million internally displaced people (IDP) in Somalia with an additional 350,000 Somalis living in the Dadaab camp. The Kenyan government is attempting to close the Dadaab camp so UNICEF are tracking IDP movement using real time satellite imagery to improve its ability to predict population movement and help coordinate its support activities more efficiently to areas in greatest need.

Brainnwave are proud to support UNICEF in their efforts by providing access to satellite imagery for UNICEF’s team of data scientists to analyse. We brokered the deal to access satellite data from Airbus using their Pléiades satellite constellation.

There is a great synergy between Brainnwave and UNICEF, as they are looking to expand their network of companies providing data and we have a platform that enables companies to upload and sell their data. On this occasion, the data was donated and the Brainnwave platform enabled this to happen.

Natalia Adler, Data, Research and Policy Planning Specialist at UNICEF was keen to form a collaboration with Brainnwave to assist in their relief efforts. UNICEF identified satellite imagery as being key to better understanding the situation in Dadaab, which in turn led to Ms Adler contacting Brainnwave.

If we can understand how people move we can coordinate relief assistance in a much better, more targeted way so we can assist the population where the need is greatest.

“Approximately 60% of internally displaced people in Somalia are children”, said Ms Adler. When the Kenyan Government threatened to to close the Dadaab camp last year, the biggest in the world, the need arose to get a better understanding of their movements.

UNICEF are embracing data science to focus on other areas of concern, including the Syrian and Jordanian border, where approximately 70,000 refugees are caught in a “no-man’s land”. The use of satellite data makes it easier to understand population movement in an area that is very hard to monitor on the ground.

Brainnwave is committed to continued support for UNICEF and working with other charities and good causes to help them overcome challenges they may face.

It’s wonderful that Scotland has a focus on bringing commercial companies together through innovation centres such as the Data Lab.

There is no single answer to these complex problems, so we have to tackle them in a different way. It is collective problem-solving and, here, using data science to decode the complexity.

Natalia Adler – Data, Research and Policy Planning Specialist – Unicef