Australian software company, Station Five is using real time data to visually track humanitarian efforts, to provide greater communication and transparency across some of the most destitute places on earth.
“I was actually working on the backend of a gaming forum where gamers could discuss in-game strategies when I was asked to develop a booking platform for a medical company which led to projects with major health insurers and governments,” says 29-year-old founder, Lambros Photios.
Station Five uses real time data to provide crucial information to break down communication barriers between development workers and those suffering; and has now gone on to secure a contract worth more than $2 million dollars with the Swiss Government to track aid demand in Somalia and conflict sensitivity analysis.
“The problem for humanitarian programs now is that they don’t always know what and where the main problem is in some parts of the world,” says Photios.
“The real time data is collated from seventeen sources including live satellite and drone imagery, emergency calls, on the ground interviews, and apps that are designed to make it easier for people to reach out for help.”
“In Somalia, we will be giving agencies visibility of what’s happening on the ground in a consolidated lens of the country as a whole – not just a particular region – which means aid efforts can be targeted to the right spot at the right time,” says Photios.
The company won the global tender following similar work carried out for the World Food Programme in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh – home to the largest refugee camp in the world – and in the Mindanao region in the Philippines.
Photios says the technology allows aid agencies to see the situation unfold on the ground in real time, which he says is something that has not been possible until now.
“We envisage the software program we developed will change the way aid and humanitarian relief is delivered allowing governments and agencies like the United Nations to be more agile to respond quickly to changing situations whether it be conflict, sexual assault or starvation.”
“It’s a very fulfilling project as aid efforts can be highly targeted allowing aid to stretch further and into the hands of those who need it most,” Photios says.
“We used our technology approach when we recently worked with the World Food Programme in the Mindanao region in the Philippines to quantify their contribution to peace – an area of conflict involving ISIS and local militia.
“We were able to analyse the data to pinpoint areas where women didn’t feel safe to leave their homes to get food for their families because ISIS had suddenly moved into their neighbourhood,” he says.
Station Five will be working alongside Australian digital marketing agency, G Squared who will design the look of the dashboard for the Somalia project.