Announcing our Open Maps for Humanitarian Needs Campaign
Posted by Jessica Pechmann, Raiza Pilatowsky Gruner • Feb. 6, 2025
Anticipating a potential drop in information on humanitarian contexts in the coming months, and while humanitarians find a way forward, we are launching a 90 day campaign of Open Maps for Humanitarian Needs.
The record numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance, compounded with recent disruptions in the humanitarian and development funding system (see HOT’s statement), are creating new challenges locally, regionally, and globally. Anticipating a potential drop in information on humanitarian contexts in the coming months, and while humanitarians find a way forward, at the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team we are launching a 90 day campaign of Open Maps for Humanitarian Needs. We’d like to bring people together with GIS to keep a spotlight on humanitarian needs throughout the world, because we believe one good map can be worth a whole report.
Maps are inherently collaborative, with a shared stake in core datasets, methods, and purposes across the multiple dynamics of a humanitarian crisis. We believe the members of our global community have all the skills, knowledge, and experience to contribute to creating a mosaic of humanitarian needs around the world.
How to get involved
Our goal is to give anybody who volunteers to make a map in a humanitarian context the platform to do so. Our only request is the focus on humanitarian needs.
Please reach out to us via this form for:
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A map idea, or request for your organization. Note reliable data availability might affect an outcome, but all requests are welcome.
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If you’d like to make a map! All levels of skills are welcome, but we ask that you can make a map on your own.
Map ideas will be vetted, and outputs reviewed. We do aim to make the process easy!
Lastly, if you are an organization facing large gaps, please reach out if you’d like to discuss a partnership with HOT to fill known gaps in remote spatial data collection or programmatic maps.
What’s Next
Check out our social media, Map Gallery on Flickr, and ReliefWeb for maps. Keep in touch, we’d love to hear from you at any time. In the meantime, do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, comments, or requests.
Example map done as part of the campaign, showing the biggest coordinated humanitarian campaigns from OCHA fro 2025.
Contact
Send us an email at data@hotosm.org.
Cover map: Example map done as part of the campaign, showing the biggest coordinated humanitarian campaigns from OCHA for 2025.
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