The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is one of the world’s most prominent sources of data and analysis on internal displacement. Its platforms support humanitarian and development actions by providing vital information about the movement of vulnerable populations. The primary sources of information for IDMC are governments, the United Nations, international organizations, NGOs, and international media. But collecting data on internal displacement is challenged by incomplete data. IDMC utilized a manual monitoring system until IDETECT was developed in 2017. Since then, IDETECT has helped IDMC analyze thousands of global news sources daily through natural language processing, automating data collection. As data collection increased, IDMC faced a series of scaling challenges including the filtering and visualization of data at the very time that it required additional capacity to manage an ever growing data set.
DFS worked with IDMC to develop additional IDETECT features including interactive dashboards to allow analysts to monitor internal displacement news reports more effectively. The resulting dashboards present collected data on a dynamic map with tabular interfaces for data selection, helping IDMC complete its data tagging faster. The system also provides data visualizations and trend representations more efficiently allowing the humanitarian sector to better evaluate the impact of natural disasters and armed conflict. The result is the presentation of information in a simple, comprehensive, and understandable way for partners, funders, and decision-makers worldwide.
