Under the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), global software powerhouse System Analysis Program Development (SAP) recently launched its data processing and analysis tool the “4W Wizard” in order to support faster and more efficient action from the organization in times of crisis.
The brainchild of SAP Industry and Customer Innovation Advisor Carsten Boekholt, the concept was pitched at the SAP One Billion Lives Sprint Against Covid-19 and subsequently built on the SAP Business Technology Platform, drawing inspiration from Boekholt’s personal humanitarian response system prototype.
With unprecedented energy and enthusiasm, the “4W Wizard” saw completion in a mere eight weeks.
Christoph Schubert, “4W Wizard” senior developer, spoke of how an expert panel was quickly assembled once the project was presented, and how the development process prioritized maintaining an enterprise standard without compromising the UN’s desired features.
Former OCHA Regional Information Management Officer Asia-Pacific John Marinos stated that the strong SAP and UN collaboration served as an exemplary sample of effective public-private partnerships, and is at the heart of what made the project a success.
In the midst of a humanitarian crisis, immediate access to top-tier data could spell the difference between life and death for numerous people, as responders orchestrate their efforts with one another and while spread out.
Thus, in order to make critical information from relevant organizations such as UN agencies, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), local and national officials, available and organized in the least amount of time, the “4W Wizard” is key.
Through cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) learning and natural language processing, the “4W Wizard” collates, formats, organizes, and even categorizes all relevant information fed to OCHA into a standardized form prior to resubmission back to the organization.
“4W Wizard” has been tried and tested with a positive response in humanitarian actions throughout the Asia Pacific region, including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia, to name a few.
In Nepal, notably, both time and resources have been spared by OCHA have gone to efficient use and resulted in a swiftly launched Humanitarian Response Plan for Covid-19 worth USD 83 million, enhanced readiness should for monsoons (which the nation is prone to), and empower local NGO knowledge capacity.
“The tool unquestionably allows OCHA to do our job better, coordinating urgent, life-saving assistance to the people who need it most,” Marinos said.
