A More Proactive Humanitarian Response

Background

Since 2016, we have partnered with a leading global organization working in 40 countries in support of their humanitarian assistance missions during the Syrian crisis. Projects have included tools to help plan safe routes for aid delivery in conflict zones and a data-driven approach to forecasting and delivering aid to communities that need it most.

This Year

In every region where the organization works, there is an overwhelming amount of human need and too few resources to adequately address it. We're deploying the technological infrastructure that enables the organization to use their data more effectively and make informed decisions when planning for and executing humanitarian response missions. This infrastructure is backed by Palantir Foundry, which empowers users across the organization to work directly with their data. We’re rolling out Foundry to everyone from field operations teams, who use it to design and fine-tune their programs, to directors of country offices, who use it to generate meaningful data on program status and effectiveness.

After less than a year in use, Foundry is driving several missions.

• The complex nature of the Syrian crisis — and the organization’s multi-faceted response to it — makes it incredibly challenging to keep track of the continually changing number of displaced people and their urgent needs, such as food, basic services, and medical care. Foundry backs a live dashboard that gives the organization greater visibility into where its resources are concentrated while keeping its people and assets safe.
• Many communities and camps for internally displaced people (IDP) in Syria are not adequately prepared for winter conditions. Limited resources mean that aid distribution must be targeted, taking into account population demographics, local market conditions, and existing supplies. The organization uses Foundry to integrate and analyze this data to assess which types of aid would best help different communities prepare for the demands of winter in Syria.
• The organization’s Jordan office provides aid for vulnerable Jordanians and Syrian refugees, offering a number of programs that focus on topics such as economic opportunity, youth education, water access, and community resilience. Individual programs use Foundry to measure progress against key targets, including attendance rates and stress-reduction levels, and improve program effectiveness in real time.
• Working with vulnerable populations requires safeguarding their personal data through sound data stewardship. We're supporting the organization in developing best practices for protecting data, privacy, and civil liberties while enabling them to achieve their mission.

At this humanitarian organization, Foundry is empowering a broad class of users to work with data in more sophisticated ways, making their humanitarian response work more targeted, accountable, and proactive. This increases their ability to save and improve lives, driving positive outcomes for the world's most vulnerable populations.

Palantir continues to be an important partner, making us more efficient, proactive, and precise in our response to helping people in need. The technology enables us to make better use of our data and places powerful decision-support capability in the hands of our field teams.

Senior Director, Technology for Development, Global Humanitarian Organization