Maybe they could form a support group? I know, I know, that’s not the sort of thing we’re supposed to joke about.

Yan Rebois of CartONG has written to let me know that their displaced mapping project with UNHCR is now public, an interesting application based on Google Maps, for general use by humanitarian organisations. Although it requires a log-in to edit anything, you can view the information without any authorisation.

The application maps the locations and background information on the displaced communities that UNHCR and partner agencies are working with in Uganda, centred around Gulu, which makes sense. It’s specifically listed as “operation information” rather than a public information (i.e. not just another press release).

Now what’s interesting about this application is not that it’s being used to map displaced people - we’ve seen that before, as my earlier posts showed. It’s that behind each of the locations, as well as the obvious geographic information, you get a link to a narrative Return Monitoring Site Report, which is far more useful for everybody.

It appears that the data will largely be updated by UNHCR, possibly with the assistance of its operational partners, which would be fantastic if they can manage it. However for me this raises some interesting questions about data security on the site – for example, I can see who the “community leader” is quite easily on the reports I downloaded, which might have security implications.

That’s a minor concern though – the main issue is whether this project can be shown to add value to the work being done with the displaced, as well as giving outside observers a better chance to see the scale of the problem in northern Uganda, which is massively under-reported in the media, while all eyes are on Darfur.