UN GLOBAL PULSE: Product Harnessing innovation to protect the vulnerable Sara Farmer Chief Platform Architect, UN Global Pulse Executive Office of the Secretary-General United Nations Headquarters New York, NY

Global Pulse has a clear vision and an ambitious mission our vision Close the information gap between the onset of a crisis and the availability of actionable information for decision makers our mission Harness innovation to protect the vulnerable

Which stocks would you buy today… …if this were all you knew? Dow-Jones Index

The Information Gap When the global economic crisis hit in 2008, world leaders needed to know how the crisis was affecting vulnerable populations. That turned out to be a bit of a problem.

Household-level stats take months to collect, and years to validate!

The information gap is real… ? First data becomes available

…as are its consequences.

“Tracking” progress on the Millennium Development Goals

Yet during the global crisis, the world also changed in truly wondrous ways

Real-time “data exhaust” “the incidental, or ambient data that is created as a by-product of simply carrying on with our daily lives” Social Media Citizen Reporting Online News Mobile Phone Services Remote Sensing

Global Pulse Products: Real-time monitoring framework Open platform architecture Local innovation labs

1. Data and Analysis

Shared analytical framework on vulnerability Global Pulse Analytical Framework l A common understanding of what vulnerability is and how we measure it l not a standard definition for UN but shared agreement on and understanding of a Global Pulse definition What is vulnerability? - What creates vulnerability (impacts)? - Who does it affect (individual/household/community/demogra phy)? - How does it manifest? How do we measure it? - What are the indicators and metrics for measuring vulnerability? - Global indicators will be selected - Guidelines created for national indicators

Analysis doesn't happen without data Open and Generated Data l Open Data l Population-generated data l SMS surveys l Gov2.0 apps UN and Government Data - UN open data - License agreements - Data cleaning & normalisation - Individual privacy - Data Sovereignty Private and Donated Data - Data held by private companies Data Philanthropy Privacy protection - Intellectual property - Looking for 'markers'

Analysis & Visualisation Methods Collaborative analysis l Hunch labs l Argumentation methods Big Data methods - Real-time streaming data - Very large datasets Traditional methods - Frequentist statistics - Bayesian statistics Test case: food insecurity (2008, 2011)

2. Platform and Tools

Global Pulse will add new tools to traditional approach to transform vulnerability monitoring 1. Establish Baseline 2. Monitor baseline 3. Investigat e anomalie s 4. Respond Traditional indicators (Statistical vulnerability indicators) Proxy indicators (Non-traditional indicators of vulnerability) Active monitoring (ongoing door to door surveys) Passive monitoring (Real time observation of data streams) Physical verification (on site investigation via for eg. ad hoc household survey) Community/Netw ork alert (Make community leaders sensitive to potential event) Response Baseline is established based on traditional and proxy indicators. This baseline may include a model of the risk terrain Baseline is monitored actively and passively for anomalies and changes Teams investigate anomalies to verify vulnerability events If vulnerabilities are identified then responses is mobilized and targeted If vulnerability corroborated Physical verification (on site investigation via for eg. ad hoc household survey) Traditional Approach New tools

Pulse Collaboration Platform Open standards, open APIs, open source components Collaborate with your team, share hunches with your social network Integrate with existing tools for data aggregation, analysis, visualization, mapping, alerting…

Pulse Collaboration Platform

3. Innovation and Labs

Innovation labs have four roles Detect when vulnerable populations are being impacted by global shocks, Understand the coping strategies – both positive and negative – that affected communities are adopting, Share hypotheses, alerts and key information with regional partners, Respond with better policy interventions sooner than possible today.

Linked to local communities! OpenUN (“Blue Hacks”) Open innovation cycle Hackathons Grand Challenges Application development teams Linked communities Open source communities Open data communities Open response communities UNV Other UN units

Thank You Join in! PulseCamp:Data – coming soon! #openun