MapAction USA supports better decision making in humanitarian crises through the expert application of modern mapping and geospatial analysis.

The geographical information systems (GIS) sector has transformed so many areas of decision making. MapAction USA exists to ensure the benefits are also applied to humanitarian decision making.

With the right information, presented in accessible ways, better decisions can be made more quickly leading to more lives and livelihoods saved.

MapAction, the global humanitarian organization that we support, provides outstanding humanitarian decision making support in humanitarian crises, through effective visualization of data.

It has a unique capacity to provide geospatial insight to decision making in crises, anywhere in the world, and at 24 hours notice. It is an organisation committed to collaboration and partnership, to being right at the heart of humanitarian response, whether supporting national and regional governments or the global UN and other non-profits supporting crisis affected populations.

That claim is not made lightly but is based on 20+ years of experience and learning, carefully gleaned from attending over 100 different humanitarian crises and supporting countless more remotely.

It is based on the feedback and testimonials of the very decision makers MapAction exists to support, be they national, regional or global specialists.

And it is based on the breadth of technical and humanitarian knowledge and experience that MapAction’s team of 70+ highly trained members can apply to a situation.

When asked to support a crisis, the team doesn’t ask which maps are needed but rather, which decisions need to be supported. The entire global MapAction knowledge base is immediately on hand to assess which data is available to support that decision, whether it is reliable enough to make the decision accurately, and which maps, data and visualization products have worked best in similar situations.

Sometimes it is not a map that is required, but a dashboard, a cleaned data set or another form of spatial analysis or visualization. MapAction’s team has the skills and knowledge to recognize this and the confidence to propose it.

Away from crisis response, MapAction shares the very specialist knowledge it has acquired, always aiming to improve humanitarian outcomes by supporting better decisions. It teaches and trains humanitarian coordinators in how to use maps and other specialist geospatial data products for better outcomes.

MapAction is also working to ensure that the essential data that it can predict will be needed in future crises will be available immediately, so that they don’t even need to be asked to make the essential base maps on which to overlay situational data. Those will be provided instantly and reliably.

And they work to ensure that their personnel are continually ready to deploy, in whatever form that deployment may take, at 24 hours notice, fully trained and equipped to be effective in supporting any community in the world.

The service that MapAction provides meets a very specialized but important need which the MapAction team - mainly volunteers but supported by specialist staff - is totally committed, uniquely prepared and very proud to fulfil.