A new report maps the landscape of humanitarian aid data — and finds reason to worry. Data protection, cybersecurity, and information for sale are just a handful of the reasons to ask if the aid sector is doing enough to protect information about the people it serves.
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Also in today’s edition: A breakdown of aid donors’ sectoral spending, a look at the Munich Security Conference, and some thoughts on “epistemic humility” from billionaire and effective altruist Dustin Moskovitz.
Responsibility to protect
It’s Thursday, Feb. 15. Do you know where your data is?
Humanitarian aid groups collect a lot of data: biometrics, phone numbers, identification cards, ethnic and religious identity, financial information, geolocation, dietary habits, family size, history of gender-based violence, birth and death certificates, medical data.
Sometimes it’s even a condition for providing assistance, and in many cases the humanitarian sector says it is essential for getting the right support to the right people.
But as data collection has proliferated, so have questions about privacy, security, and proper use of people’s personal information, my colleague Sara Jerving reports.
Sara has the first look at a new report — released today — from Giulio Coppi at Access Now which maps the relationships between private technology companies and international humanitarian organizations. The map that Coppi has drawn is not a particularly comforting one.
He finds “an opaque world, increasingly consolidated in few hands, dealing in the data of the world's most vulnerable and providing fertile ground to greedy data brokers and intermediaries.”
It’s a world that’s vulnerable to cyberattacks, exposed to a global economy in which the “rare datasets” gathered by aid groups can be valuable financial commodities, and populated by numerous players, each collecting different types of data through overlapping platforms under shifting rules and ethical norms.
“There cannot be meaningful consent when your life depends on giving away your data,” Coppi says.
Read: The 'cynical space' where aid, tech, and militaries intersect
Go fish
While we’re on the subject of data, fishermen in Kenya would like more of it.
In Kenya, Devex contributor Anthony Langat reports that it is mandatory for fishermen to give data on their catches to the government to help with sustainable fishing management. But for some small-scale fishermen who contribute the data, it can sometimes feel like a one-way street — they provide information to the government, but little seems to filter back to them to aid in their own decision making.
Read: Is data transparency the missing bait for Kenyan fishermen?
That’s the way the money goes
What are big aid donors spending their money on? That’s the $217 billion question, and my colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan has the answer.
Miguel took a dive into data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to break down 2022 donor funding into sectoral categories. Funding to multilateral agencies such as the United Nations and World Bank came out on top with $52.2 billion.
Devex Pro members might want to bookmark this article for a go-to snapshot of aid donor priorities — and for a handy lesson in how to get comprehensible numbers out of OECD’s Creditor Reporting System.
Read the interactive analysis: Which sectors received the most aid in 2022? (Pro)
+ Interested in more funding coverage? Explore our funding insights page. If you aren’t a Pro member yet, start your 15-day free trial to access all our exclusive news content, analyses, curated career content, and events.
For whom the bill tolls
Of course there’s another big budget question at the moment: Will U.S. lawmakers pass a multibillion-dollar aid package for Ukraine and Israel, or will congressional skeptics block more spending?
Adva Saldinger reports that while most of the money in question is military aid, the emergency funding bill currently being considered includes about $10 billion in humanitarian assistance that aid groups have called “necessary and prudent.”
The U.S. Senate approved the spending package on Tuesday, but its fate in the House of Representatives is much less certain. Among other things, the bill includes about $5.6 billion to USAID to address humanitarian needs as a result of the conflicts, $250 million to the World Bank IDA special program to enhance its crisis response window, $39 million for USAID operating expenses, and $13 million for USAID’s Office of Inspector General.
Read: US Senate approves $10B in emergency humanitarian aid funding
+ Check out our page dedicated to the future of U.S. aid.
Make your own kind of Munich
The Munich Security Conference, which begins tomorrow, was born out of the Cold War — and discussion this year will undoubtedly be dominated by two current wars: Ukraine’s ongoing agony and the fears of a wider Middle East conflict connected to Israel’s current assault on Gaza.
After all, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected in town to plead for more military support for Kyiv, and Jordan's King Abdullah II will definitely be there to push for a cease-fire to ease the humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory.
But my colleague Rob Merrick tells me that if you dig beneath the surface, it’s clear the event is changing significantly to embrace a much wider definition of “security” that recognizes the vital importance of the climate crisis, food security, artificial intelligence, and good governance. He’s been told that no fewer than 70 of the 250 planned speakers will be from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The heads of government heading to Munich include Nana Akufo-Addo from Ghana, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud from Somalia, Bernardo Arévalo from Guatemala, and Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka from Fiji.
Among 180 side events will be several focusing on food insecurity as a predictor of future conflict, featuring leading figures from the World Food Programme and the high-level panel on finance for climate action, which was launched out of the climate conference of parties, or COP, process.
The three-day conference has “a firm commitment to broaden traditional security conversations in innovative ways,” says Michael Werz, a U.S.-based senior adviser to the event, adding it is now a forum “second only to COP.”
A Food Security Task Force will be set up in Munich, bringing together development, defense, and diplomatic leaders to drill down into international food systems and, it is hoped, secure financial pledges and institutional reforms to make them more resilient.
Rob will be in Munich covering the conference. If you’re there, don’t hesitate to say hello — or email tips to rob.merrick@devex.com.
Reflective altruism
It’s a moment of soul-searching for the effective altruism movement.
Effective altruism icons are asking what comes next in the wake of billionaire bankroller Sam Bankman-Fried’s spectacular criminal implosion. And in keeping with a community that hashes out the moral and practical questions of purposeful living in an online forum, that soul-searching is happening on the internet.
Dustin Moskovitz, the Facebook billionaire turned Open Philanthropy funder, has a personal reflection on the future of effective altruism in the post-SBF era. It’s a warning against “the perils of maximization” — prioritizing one concern above all others — and a call for “epistemic humility” — acknowledging the limits of certainty.
“In practice, we end up with a shifting blend of priorities, and relative ratios that are context and opportunity dependent,” Moskovitz writes.
Can a humbled effective altruism movement still offer an alternative to mainstream philanthropy? Let us know what you think!
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In other news
Fidelity Charitable, the largest grantmaker in the United States, distributed a record $11.8 billion to nonprofits in 2023, marking a more than 5% increase from the previous year. [AP News]
A displacement camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province was bombed, resulting in three civilian deaths, which prompted a humanitarian organization to warn of limited aid access for thousands in the conflict-hit region. [ABC News]
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is planning to bolster ties with the African continent during his upcoming visits to Egypt and Ethiopia. [DW]
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
