NOMAD project: mobile data collection for humanitarian organizations

NOMAD (HumanitariaN Operations Mobile Acquisition of Data) is a project that is co-lead by iMMAP and CartONG. It is has received funds from the French Space Agency (CNES) and the Humanitarian Innovation Fund. Its goal is to promote the use of mobile data collection by the humanitarian professionals in order to improve their efficiency and their impact. The NOMAD consortium provides advices to mobile data collection users, help them connect with the solution providers, and help aid organizations to implement MDC project. The project has been set up in a partnership of several NGOs and aid or research organizations (iMMAP, CartONG, WFP, Auvea, MEDES, CNES, ACAPS, IOM, MobileActive).

The NOMAD project has developed the following elements since 2010:

• Research on mobile data collection components and princples, including a case study on the use of MDC by aid professionals around the world and a pilot deployment in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in partnership with IOM.
• Development of an online selection tool that allow humanitarian organizations to find the MDC solution most fit to their need amongst more than 30 solutions, based on a questionnaire and a database updated by the providers and maintained by the NOMAD team.
• Outreach in order to demonstrate the impact and advantages of MDC for humanitarian action, with in particular the organization of workshops to help MDC users connect with solution providers. After two first editions in 2011 and 2012 in Geneva, the 2013 edition has gathered more than 70 participants and 10 solution providers presenting their tool in Paris in May of 2013.