MapAction is committed to creating data-rich emergency response landscapes. Since 2024, we have taken proactive steps towards this goal using three simple techniques: we listen, we learn and we adapt. Our commitment to support local agencies in the humanitarian data landscape, for example in Africa, is multifold: we’ve supported capacity building for grassroots networks in Uganda and Kenya. We have worked with a dozen African national disaster management agencies in the last 24 months alone – many more since our inception in 2002, offering support on risk modelling, emergency response or capacity building. We’ve also worked with academics, government and NGO personnel. We continue to listen, learn and adapt.
“It’s easy to express an idea with a map,” Giresse Likunde, MapAction’s information management officer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, noted late last year. A map can tie together disparate data points and provide a moment of clarity, in the same way a sentence takes letters without meaning and can turn them into a powerful insight.
The question of who has access to or owns these insights – this power – even in the emergency preparedness landscape, has long been shaped by global power dynamics. The major INGOs, international agencies, institutions and donors are headquartered in the Global North; humanitarian response, in turn, is often focused on the Global South. This has traditionally deprived local humanitarian organisations of agency. The question of who has access to and can manage data in the humanitarian landscape inevitably is tied up in this paradox.
At MapAction we are committed to addressing this imbalance; to creating a more equitable humanitarian data landscape. Our approach to localisation is shaped by our partners: we’re committed to learning and understanding their needs. We listen. We learn. We adapt. We address the gaps we are asked to support. Why? Because data can save lives, shape communities and inform the entire response to a disaster.
Through dozens of conversations with local partners and agencies, we are strengthening our understanding of specifically local needs in each place. These conversations help to build trust; our partners must know that we are committed, humbly, to support them with what they identify as a need. Local humanitarian agencies must be data sovereign in choice and capacity: have access to the right data tools, risk models and experienced personnel. “To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge,” said Copernicus. True power.
Early journey: Caribbean and Central Asia
Our journey to support local data landscapes began in the Caribbean more than 15 years ago. For a decade we have worked alongside the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) to strengthen data-driven decisions in emergency response in the Caribbean. As CDEMA built institutional capacity across its 19 participating states, we supported when we were asked to. We’ve since conducted more than 50 joint training events and emergency responses side-by-side with CDEMA, including most recently in response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica in December 2025. Other recent humanitarian mapping efforts during the annual ‘hurricane season’ have been supported by local MapAction volunteers.
Podcast: Towards disaster resilience with CDEMA in the Caribbean
READ MORE: Meet a MapAction volunteer on International Women’s Day
At the same time, teams from our 70+ expert information management volunteers worked along the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) to co-develop data sovereignty in Central Asia. Over five years, MapAction and CESDRR supported the development of 320 local GIS officers from emergency agencies in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan between 2018 and 2023. Those countries now have officers who can map floods and wildfires as they unfold and inform live solutions. With the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre) – the humanitarian assistance department of the 11-member intergovernmental organisation – we co-worked on building capacity in grassroots and national groups in, among other countries, Nepal, Philippines and Sri Lanka.
READ ALSO: “We see real outcomes.” MapAction impact in Central Asia in partnership with CESDRR
Recent focus on Africa
In the last 24 months, our focus returned to Africa. We’ve used GIS to tackle malaria, put unvaccinated children on the map and mapped cholera and ebola outbreaks.
READ ALSO: MapAction streamlining data management in DRC to improve the lives of millions of displaced people
Whether it’s supporting local agencies to understand the needs of 6+ million displaced people in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), health professionals to reach millions of unvaccinated children in Central or West Africa or working with disaster management agencies to map a dangerous hurricane in Mozambique or Madagascar, MapAction is increasingly committed to supporting locally-led data landscapes in Southern Africa.
When local agencies identify gaps in their personnel’s disaster risk management expertise, we enable use of GIS and data management tools. We tailor these tools based on need, demand and circumstances. During the worst emergencies, local disaster management agencies often request our team’s assistance and so we provide surge support and help-decision makers to process the data into solutions. When local disaster management agencies identify risks linked to regular disasters, our expert staff and volunteers support them to create mitigating models for the risks they face. We work with grassroots, national and regional organisations to put data at the heart of emergency preparedness and response. Our team of 70+ volunteers, a collective treasure of humanitarian information management expertise, is at the service of this objective.
Climate threats in Southern Africa
Most recently, our work has focused on providing support to the 16-country Southern African Development Community (SADC), specifically building capacity at the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre (SHOC). SHOC is responsible for the coordination of regional disaster risk preparedness, response and early recovery to support member states affected by disasters.
UN OCHA estimated that thousands of people died in more than 500 natural disasters in the SADC region between 2005 and 2015 alone. Climate change is intensifying the pressure on the limited resources available to local disaster risk management sectors. Madagascar alone was struck by 50 cyclones between 2000 and 2024.
The challenges SADC member states face vis-a-vis climate change are multifold. “Climate change poses a number of risks to SADC goals for regional economic development. Increased frequency of floods, cyclones, and droughts may damage infrastructure, destroy agricultural crops, disrupt livelihoods, and cause loss of life,” notes SADC on climate adaptation.
Understanding how the weather is changing and how disasters will affect communities is key to building preparedness. Data is the key enabler, stretching limited resources into good decisions and responses that serve the affected communities as best they can.
READ ALSO: CoP 28 : Good use of data is key to mitigating the climate emergency
Risk or no risk?
In 2023, MapAction began to work with national disaster agencies on modelling threats and capacity according to the INFORM Risk Index model. These exercises were designed to give local agencies the shared ability to harness and manage data in real time and to anticipate risks from natural disasters like floods, wildfires and droughts. National disaster management agencies in Mozambique, Madagascar and Eswatini now use these models to strengthen preparedness and model future risks. As climate change intensifies, Southern Africa needs data to provide a mitigating shield.
VIEW ALSO: Anticipatory action and the benefits of robust data models
As of 2025, MapAction has been providing training and support to SADC’s emergency operations centre, as well as information management staff from disaster management agencies of the 16-country SADC bloc. In February 2026, MapAction’s Director of GIS Greg Fricz travelled to Nacala, northern Mozambique – where SADC’s emergency operations centre has been situated since 2022 – to launch a new support phase. Working together, MapAction and SADC SHOC will develop a region wide, user-friendly application, based on geospatial and data science processes, that will enable rapid risk assessment for various hazards.
In February 2026, MapAction’s Ant Scott also supported a SADC capacity building event in-person in Antananarivo. Our Head of GIS Greg Fricz was in Zambia in June to meet SADC colleagues. As of May 2026, MapAction also has an Information Management Officer seconded to the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre (SHOC) headquarters in Nacala, northern Mozambique. This long-term support aims to support the development of GIS and risk modelling strategies for emergency response and preparedness across the region.
MapAction’s African data highway
At the same time, MapAction has been sending teams of humanitarian mappers to support national disaster management agencies in the region during disasters. In January 2026, MapAction mappers supported Mozambique’s national disaster management agency INGD. Together we mapped data to analyse the best possible response to floods that took more than 100 lives. This was MapAction’s sixth support mission in Mozambique in response to a disaster since 2019. MapAction also mapped the entire humanitarian data landscape in Mozambique in early 2025 in partnership with the country’s national disaster management agency INGD.
Only days after this year’s response in Mozambique, another MapAction team flew to Madagascar to leverage data, in support of the national disaster management agency BNGRC, to mitigate the impact of Hurricane Gezani on Africa’s largest island.
Our work with SADC, and more broadly in the region, will continue in 2026 and beyond. Throughout all the work we do, we will continue to listen, learn and adapt.
READ MORE: A volunteer-driven disaster relief model
Facts Only
* MapAction is a humanitarian mapping organization founded in 2002.
* The organization utilizes a network of over 70 expert information management volunteers.
* Between 2018 and 2023, MapAction and CESDRR trained 320 GIS officers in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
* MapAction provided joint training and response support to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) over a 10-year period, including a response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica in December 2025.
* Since 2023, MapAction has worked with national disaster agencies in Mozambique, Madagascar, and Eswatini using the INFORM Risk Index model.
* MapAction has provided training to the SADC Humanitarian and Emergency Operations Centre (SHOC) as of 2025.
* In January 2026, MapAction supported Mozambique’s national disaster management agency (INGD) during floods.
* In February 2026, MapAction personnel attended events in Nacala, Mozambique, and Antananarivo, Madagascar.
* As of May 2026, a MapAction Information Management Officer is seconded to the SHOC headquarters in Nacala.
* MapAction has collaborated with the AHA Centre in Nepal, Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
Executive Summary
MapAction operates as a volunteer-driven entity focusing on the localization of humanitarian data management to address historical imbalances between the Global North and Global South. By providing GIS tools, risk modeling, and capacity building, the organization aims to establish data sovereignty for local agencies, ensuring that those responding to disasters have the technical expertise to manage their own information landscapes.
Recent efforts have shifted heavily toward Southern Africa through a partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This collaboration involves integrating the INFORM Risk Index to anticipate threats and developing a region-wide risk assessment application. While the organization highlights successes in Central Asia and the Caribbean, current priorities involve mitigating climate-driven disasters, such as cyclones and floods in Mozambique and Madagascar. The strategy relies on a combination of long-term personnel secondment and surge support during active emergencies to transition local agencies from external dependence to autonomous data management.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is one of technical empowerment: shifting the "power of the map" from distant headquarters in the Global North to the practitioners on the ground in the Global South. By focusing on capacity building rather than mere service delivery, the initiative seeks to dismantle a systemic paradox where those most affected by disasters are often the least equipped to manage the data describing their own crises.
However, the narrative employs a distinct "predatory liberation" rhetoric—the idea that technical tools provided by a Western-based entity are the primary key to unlocking local agency. The framing suggests that "true power" is found in the adoption of specific GIS models and the training provided by an external volunteer collective. While the intent is localization, the mechanism remains a top-down transfer of methodology. There is an unstated assumption that Western-defined "data sovereignty" is the only viable path to resilience, potentially overlooking indigenous forms of knowledge and risk management that do not fit into a GIS layer.
The root cause is a recognition of the failure of the traditional INGO model, but the solution offered is a refined version of the same structural relationship: the expert (MapAction) enabling the recipient (SADC/INGD). The second-order consequence is a potential dependency on specific proprietary or standardized models (like INFORM) that define how risk is perceived and managed across an entire continent.
Patterns detected: ARC-034 Predatory Liberation
Bridge Questions:
1. How do local agencies define "data sovereignty" differently than MapAction does?
2. What happens to these local data landscapes if the external volunteer support network diminishes?
3. In what ways might standardized risk models ignore hyper-local ecological indicators?
Counterstrike Scan: A bad actor would use this "empowerment" framing to embed foreign surveillance or data-collection infrastructure into sovereign national agencies under the guise of humanitarian aid. The actual content does not match this pattern, as it emphasizes transparency, joint training, and the specific goal of local autonomy.
Sentinel — Human
The text presents a well-structured narrative linking practical humanitarian data work across multiple regions to a central argument about data sovereignty, supported by specific examples of collaborations and outcomes.