Veranstaltungen | Digital Tools and AI in Humanitarian Assistance

Proposals should be submitted until 16/01/2024 to birgit.mayerhofer@globaleverantwortung.at.

Digital tools have become essential in the humanitarian sector, enabling organisations to deliver more efficient, effective and targeted aid to vulnerable populations. Artificial intelligence and data modelling hold great promise for predicting and detecting early signs of impending disasters such as famine, and can also help aid workers better target their assistance and increase accessibility for people with disabilities. AI can help optimise the delivery of aid, supplies and services to refugees and can scale NGOs’ efforts to communicate and understand displaced peoples’ needs, i.a. through chatbots and machine translation. AI technologies such as machine vision can quickly analyse images of roads damaged or destroyed by an event, paving the way for a faster and safer response, potentially saving more lives. Generative AI can provide open data which might help to transform the humanitarian aid system in key areas as localisation, coordination, resource planning and financing. However, there are considerable risks related to the use of digtal tools and AI and a deliberate and thoughtful approach to their adoptions is critical.

The training will contribute to the digital literacy of Austrian humanitarian workers involved in various aspects of humanitarian assistance. These ToR outline the objectives, scope and key deliverables for a training programme on digital tools in humanitarian response.

The primary objectives of this training are as follows:

to equip humanitarian workers in Austria with a basic understanding of how to harness the potentials of digital tools and AI on the basis of use cases
to enhance the digital literacy of humanitarian workers involved in various aspects of humanitarian assistance.
to promote participant’s understanding for the ethical and responsible use of digital tools (especially in the context of data protection and privacy, owenership, transparency and accountability) and the implications for International Humanitarian Law (IHL)
to introduce participants to a range of digital tools for data collection, analysis, communication and project management, and how they can be used to improve coordination, decision-making and reporting in humanitarian operations.

The training programme will

introduce participants to digital tools and types of AI applications in humanitarian assistance, including concepts and terminology (e.g. generative AI, algorithmic bias, deep learning algorithms, etc.).
Inform participants about technical shortcomings and risks related to the use of generative AI and digital tools in humanitarian assistance (e.g., related to data privacy and accuracy, hallucination of AI, deep fake, lack of transparency of AI systems, data breach).
raise participants‘ awareness of ethical and legal considerations related to the use of digital tools and AI, including for IHL
Familiarise participants with various tools (e.g. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), use of drones and mapping for humanitarian response, communication and information management tools, digital tools for project management and monitoring, and programmes such as Microsoft’s AI for Good initiative).

If you have any questions please contact birgit.mayerhofer@globaleverantwortung.at.