Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks

Session title: Humanitarian Workforce & AI-Capacity & Capabilities?

Organizer(s): World Vision & Private Sector, Local CBOs

26 Mar 25 16:00-17:30 UTC+1 (Salle 14)

SessionAbstract

Session Abstract Summary/ Problem Statement:

As humanitarian funding constraints continue to deepen, but global humanitarian landscape, complexity and longevity of crises accelerate, cost-efficiency, and deployment of humanitarian AI-technology support increases. What does this trend imply for local and global humanitarian workforce? It is not a matter anymore of whether or what capacity, capabilities are taken up by AI-facilitated technology solutions, but only a matter of time. And – as a WEF feature article suggested – local communities, local actors should be part of designing humanitarian AI-based tools, but the “how” poses a challenge? What technical skills, competencies does humanitarian staff require to critically engage with and lead well-informed and risk-assessed technology? We will hear from a panel of humanitarian, academic, private sector and field frontline staff practitioners, discussing current and future applications such as DEEP – the leading collaborative sensemaking NLP- based data analysis platform for humanitarian and development actors, Data Friendly Space (DFS), as implementing partner of DEEP along with its partner Togglecorp continue to create DIY educational modules for new, non-technical users on how to use their AI tools (e.g. e-learning hubs like KayaConnect or Zendesk), and routinely update their publicly accessible GitHub repositories for users who are technologically proficient.
Critical debate of what AI-enabled technology in its current and future application in the humanitarian sector means for humanitarian workforce will include the session audience through inter-active means, concluding and provocative statements and recommendations from panelists in a round-up summary.

Agenda:

Keynote presentation framing the issues followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with presenters and audience to ensure interactive session and sharing of experiences

Sharing experiences from the field

Short statements from each panelist on gaps/ challenges

Key takeaways (moderator summary)

1. Objectives/ Expected Outcomes

• Participants share and learn about different perspectives regarding challenges and approaches, dealing with benefits and risks of AI in the humanitarian workforce ecosystem – e.g. while humanitarian staff can use newly available AI systems not only to efficiently review humanitarian needs assessment data and analytics and assist project design decision-making, AI may also be offered to assess staff performance in real-time and prescribe efficient actions, balance stress, and improve performance, have cost-efficient data collection and analysis, able to monitor location, movement, biometrics, affect, as well as verbal and non-verbal communication, but also leveraging AI that facilitates emergent leadership in group meetings, engagements with third-parties - so, technology risk impact assessment, cost-efficiency and local agency in decision making are critical factors.

• Participants and panel identify concrete opportunities and next steps, joint call to action

2. Target Audience
humanitarian and development local agencies, inclusion, gender, conflict/ humanitarian response & recovery, HR professionals, managers

The session will:
1. Highlight the challenges and discuss solutions of enabling local staff, local organisations to build a technology-cognizant workforce, emphasizing humanitarian principle-based approaches and practices.
2. Understand how to ensure a robust humanitarian workforce ecosystem can build out technology-capacity and risk & best practice sharing that is robust and impactful across the humanitarian sector
3. Engage with the audience in Q&A, discussion to understand how to best navigate and effectively leverage different approaches of capacity investment across the spectrum

Agenda

Agenda:

•Keynote presentation framing the issues followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with presenters and audience to ensure interactive session and sharing of experiences

•Sharing experiences from the field

•1 sentence statements from each panelist on gaps/ challenges

•Key takeaways (moderator summary)

Speakers

Jose Cobos, DEEP

Madigan Johnson, DFS

Shivaang Sharma, UCL

Nicola Iris Padamada, SC

Kathryn Taetzsch, WVI