What happens when a disaster strikes? How does the government know how many people are affected, and in which areas? How does aid reach people? We explored these questions in the disaster-prone state of Assam, and documented the existing flood response and management practices, including existing practices of data collection and analysis, capacities of the stakeholders, and gaps in information.
Ahmedabad Smart City collects data on thousands of public grievances weekly — from clogged drains and broken streetlights to waste collection delays and water quality issues. Yet this data was sitting largely unused, with senior officials lacking visibility into ward-level patterns. We worked with this grievance data to generate weekly actionable insights at ward and zone levels, helping municipal officials identify infrastructure hotspots and prioritise responses across the city.
When India went into lockdown in March 2020, schools were temporarily closed and mid-day meal programs stopped — affecting 11.6 crore children who depend on these meals for their nutritional needs. The Supreme Court directed states to formulate plans for providing meals during the pandemic. We conducted a systematic study across 13 states to understand how state governments responded, analysing the guidelines, orders, and measures they announced between March and September 2020.
When India went into COVID lockdown in March 2020, an army of women were conducting surveys to identify affected people, creating awareness and delivering essential health and nutrition services at doorsteps. But little was known about the changed nature of their work, their working conditions, and the risks and challenges they navigated daily. We conducted dip-stick studies with Anganwadi Workers in six districts and ASHAs in three districts in Gujarat to document their experiences during this unprecedented crisis.
Ward councillors are our most local elected representatives in urban areas, yet we know remarkably little about how they work. We embarked on a three-year participatory action-research project with ward councillors in Ahmedabad to understand how they access information and make decisions in their wards. We identified two kinds of information gaps – Knowledge about their work, and Information needed to do this work. Working closely with councillors, we co-created practical tools and resources to support their work — from handbooks and budget analyses to ward profiles and educational videos.
What does it mean for a citizen disaster reporting platform to run for a decade? How do you measure impact — not just in numbers, but in the small and big ways it transforms disaster response? With these questions, we embarked on a qualitative assessment of two citizen disaster reporting platforms — PetaBencana in Indonesia and MapaKalamidad in the Philippines. Little did we know about the stories of transformation we would uncover: from panic to agency, from helplessness to empowerment. It was a double-thank-you moment — for me, it was deeply moving; for the team, it was reassurance to believe in what they were doing.