Description: Most humanitarian scholars ask what geospatial intelligence, from satellite and drone imagery combined with artificial intelligence, can do for humanitarian action. Instead, we asked what these technologies do to the core principles—humanity, impartiality, and independence—of the “Do No Harm” humanitarian imperative. Upholding humanity and impartiality suggests that not only affected humans and groups/demographics must be protected, but also the privacy and dignity of their “data doubles.” Upholding independence suggests that humanitarian organizations need the capacity to audit donors’, industry’s and digital humanitarians’ geospatial data, tools and algorithms for privacy violations.
Empirically, we focused on Malawi. There UNICEF Malawi has an infrastructure comprising rich geospatial data sets, the first dedicated humanitarian drone corridor worldwide, a strong network with Malawi government, donors, and drone industry, as well as the first African Data & Drone Academy (ADDA) for master’s students from Malawi and neighbouring countries. 510, an initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross Red Crescent, also has active projects in the area. Conceptually, we draw upon scholarship on Fair, Accountable and Transparent (FAT) socio-technical systems, cultural and organizational theory and privacy by design. We determine technological and regulatory designs for Malawi and an appropriate design for co-creating audit capacity within ADDA’s Master program.
Partners: PGM-ITC, Unicef and 510, an initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross Red Crescent
Project output:
Journal articles and reports
Alunge NNangsope, R. A. (2024). Assessing data protection perspectives among the residents of Rumphi and Karonga in Northern Malawi regarding the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) for humanitarian intervention. In A. Seeam, V. Ramsurrun, S. Juddoo, & A. Phokeer (Eds.), Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions for Underserved Areas (Vol. 541, pp. 313-336). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51849-2_21
Gevaert, C. M., Juskauskas , T., Alunge NNangsope, R. A., Zevenbergen, J. A., & Scheibenreif, M. (2023). Drones for Humanitarian Action: Use Cases and Data Responsibility: A Guide on Drone Use Cases, what is needed for Drone Operations, and Data Responsibility Considerations. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10682492
Masinde, B. K., Gevaert, C. M., Nagenborg, M. H., & Zevenbergen, J. A. (2023). Group-privacy threats for geodata in the humanitarian context. ISPRS international journal of geo-information, 12(10), Article 393. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi12100393
van den Homberg, M., Gevaert, C. M., & Georgiadou, Y. (2020). The changing face of accountability in humanitarianism: using artificial intelligence for anticipatory action. Politics and Governance, 8(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v8i4.3158
Other publications
Masinde, B. K., Gevaert, C. M., Nagenborg, M. H., & Zevenbergen, J. A. (2024). Accountable Geo-intelligence. Poster session presented at 5th Digital Society Conference 2024, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Masinde, B., Gevaert, C. M., Nagenborg, M. H., van den Homberg, M. J. C., & Zevenbergen, J. A. (2024). Algorithmic Fairness in Geo-intelligence Workflows through Causality. Poster session presented at 3rd European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness, EWAF 2024, Mainz, Germany.
Masinde, B. K., Nagenborg, M. H., Gevaert, C. M., Meissner, F., & Zevenbergen, J. A. (2023). Threat modelling for geo-spatial data in the humanitarian context. Abstract from Digital Geography Research Group Annual Conference 2023, London, United Kingdom.
Masinde, B. K., Gevaert, C. M., van den Homberg, M., Nagenborg, M. H., Gortzak, I., & Zevenbergen, J. A. (2021). What and whom are we missing? Dissecting a flood vulnerability geo-intelligence workflow for hidden biases. Abstract from 6th World Conference on Humanitarian Studies, Paris, France.
Sponsor: NWO
Contacts:
Rogers Alunge NNangsope (was UT-ITC, now graduated)