Mapping disaster response data flows

This was a short technical and process-design consultancy for World Vision International, focused on mapping data flows and surfacing recommendations across three connected areas: WVI's internal disaster response information platform, the data needed to launch global fundraising appeals within tight time windows, and the analysis tools used by the teams responsible for disaster declarations. The engagement coincided with a redesign of the internal platform (moving off a legacy CMS and into WVI's tech ecosystem) and aimed to give decision makers a clearer view of how data actually moves between field operations, headquarters, and the systems that inform donors and the public.

A core insight from the work was that institutional donor reporting and private-donor fundraising operate on fundamentally different time horizons (months and years versus hours and days). As most humanitarian data collection is implicitly optimised around donor reporting, the consultancy investigated how real-time data collected in the field can be unlocked and made quickly accessible to teams who needed faster information, such as for appeals and storytelling.

The methodology combined stakeholder interviews across disaster management, fundraising, regional offices, and information management with a desk review of internal documentation and direct exploration of existing data sources, surfacing structural blockers and identifying opportunities to circumvent or remove them. Deliverables included a written report; visual data flows and process maps; an actor-network mapping of who owns and holds what data across the organisation; and a set of recommendations covering integration between source systems. The work explicitly resisted framing standardized data collection and effective field delivery as a dichotomy, and instead recommended changes that could serve both.