Supporting Local Level Development in Iraq Through Interactive Web Technology

In January 2010, the SIPA team traveled to Amman to consult with IAU on using new media tools for humanitarian and development assistance in Iraq, in addition to helping them understand how to better visualize data in the Governorate Profile section under development for their website. After the January field work, IAU and the SIPA team selected a web-based crowd-sourcing platform called Ushahidi for the specific purpose of collecting and displaying data collected in Iraq. In subsequent months, and with the visit of three other members of the SIPA team to Amman in March, the Ushahidi platform was built, evaluated and tested in accordance to the specific needs of IAU and the other UN agencies working in Iraq. The knowledge gained in that process forms the basis for this report, which will outline the usability of the tool in general, as well as in the specific context of the UN work in Iraq.