4th February 2024
Humanitarian Xchange 2024 – The inaugural hybrid conference from Save the Children UK and the Humanitarian Leadership Academy will hold on February 20, 2024 online and at the Business Design Center in Islington, London.
HX will host valuable conversations and insights with humanitarians making real change in their areas of specialty. One of such conversations is with Cathy Riley, Strategic Partnerships Director at Flowminder.
During her hybrid session at HX, Cathy will share real results from estimating population distribution and mobility using mobile phone usage data in Haiti, DRC, & Ghana during a session focused on the use of spatial data to support humanitarian activities.
As we countdown to February 20, we had a chat with Cathy to learn more about her personal journey and what to look forward to in her session:
In your journey, what is one personal experience that drastically changed your humanitarian outlook and possibly the trajectory of your work?
When I was young, I distinctly remember thinking that politics was something ‘over there’ and that politics and politicians didn’t affect me, my life, or my future.
Over time, I have come to realize just how wrong I was in that world view. Whether it has been watching the way some political actors steadfastly refuted UN assessment figures for those in need, or engaging in dialogue about ending child marriage, understanding power dynamics, and actively analysing how influential individuals use their power, has been a game-changer for me.
What drives me now is a crystal-clear understanding that if you want to see change in the world, you have to collaborate with those who hold power to empower those who don’t.
This is applicable to a wide range of scenarios or sectors, from, for example, conducting a gender audit to understand barriers to vaccination in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to partnering with the right people so that we create a world in which decision-makers have the data they need to inform their decision-making.
Understanding the eco-system one works in, building partnerships, and strengthening data use are various ways one can achieve impact and navigate these power dynamics, and these are some of the motivators and actions I’ve taken in my humanitarian journey.
If you want to see change in the world, you have to collaborate with those who hold power to empower those who don’t.
Flowminder will discuss data mapping on a panel with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOT), What3Words, and Esri UK. What should HX attendees look forward to?
I am excited to share with the audience the availability and potential of novel and innovative datasets, such as mobile phone and geospatial data, that can help humanitarian actors in their work.
Audiences will get to hear both what’s possible but also some of the challenges they’d face and considerations they’d need to make in opening up and using that data in their programmes.
I hope that what I share will be exciting and stimulating, generating interest in what we do and how we do it so that more people will be talking to Flowminder about ways to push the envelope when it comes to mobilising the use of phone data, as well as geospatial data, in the humanitarian space.
If you could change the world by doing just one thing, what would it be?
“I would rid the world of skepticism and arrogance, replacing these with kindness and humility.”
Put another way, I would instill each human with the instinct to be kind and humble in a way that couldn’t be switched off or tarnished, creating in people a deep and natural desire to see/hear the ‘other’, creating inevitable opportunity for dialogue and negotiation.
Will you join in the conversation? Join in person or online – registration is still open and the Humanitarian Xchange is free to attend.
More on Cathy’s hybrid session:
Title: Who? What? Where? How Data Mapping Can Shape the Humanitarian Response
Time: 11:00-12:00GMT
Format: Panel Discussion & Debate
Hybrid – Global Community Stage & Online
About Cathy
Cathy is a sustainable development professional and organisational leader with over twenty years’ experience in a variety of contexts. Her most recent background is working in international development on programme delivery and policy design for development and humanitarian response initiatives.
As Strategic Partnerships Director at Flowminder, Cathy is responsible for resource mobilisation, building strategic alliances and oversight of key programme activities including Flowminder’s flagship Data for Good Partnership programme in Ghana and capacity strengthening work to support use of non-traditional data sources in low and middle-income countries.