The U.S. Institute of Peace and Ushahidi Team Up to Launch Student-Run Crisis Mapping Program
At the opening of the International Conference of Crisis Mapping, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Ushahidi announced the launch of Universities for Ushahidi (U4U).
For Immediate Release, September 30, 2010
Contact: Lauren Sucher, 202/429-3822 or lsucher@usip.org
Rob Baker, 781/218.9460 or robbaker@ushahidi.com
(Washington) Today, at the opening of the International Conference of Crisis Mapping, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Ushahidi announced the launch of Universities for Ushahidi (U4U).
The program was inspired by the remarkable role that student volunteers played in the disaster response to Haiti and Chile, where they created a live crisis map of the needs in both countries. In the case of Haiti, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator, Craig Fugate, publicly noted that this student-driven crisis map was the most comprehensive and up-to-date map available to the humanitarian community.
U4U will bring students from developing countries to learn how they can use the Ushahidi platform and related tools in their own countries. Ushahidi is a simple information collection and mapping tool that is often combined with crowdsourcing to document crisis information using the Web, SMS, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter and smartphone applications. The platform was initially used to crowdsource the documentation of violence during Kenya’s 2007 elections. Since then, Ushahidi has been used to document violent conflict in Gaza, elections in the Sudan, human trafficking worldwide, corruption in Panama and the disaster response in Haiti — to name just a few applications.
“U4U training will be run for students by students, who will work together with peacebuilding experts from USIP to identify applications of Ushahidi for their home countries,” said Patrick Meier, director of Crisis Mapping and Strategic Partnerships at Ushahidi.
“We need to begin catalyzing a global network of proactive, next-generation peacebuilders who are trained in these new technologies,” said Sheldon Himelfarb, head of USIP’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding. “U4U is an effective way to do this, and we’re delighted to be working with the Ushahidi team to launch it.”
The first group of U4U students will be selected and trained in the spring of 2011.
Learn more about USIP’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding
