Eirene Data4Peace

More than a quarter of the world's population lives in fragile contexts, vulnerable to risk factors that restrict development, the fulfilment of human rights and increase violent conflict. 

In these settings, it is difficult to gather reliable, relevant and updated data to support decision-making. For local and national institutions, it hinders the formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policies. For private companies, it makes it more difficult to understand the social environment, assess effectively its risks and foster SDGs.

Eirene Data4Peace offers a risk information-gathering and analyzing software, facilitating decision making.

Our solution:

• Collects information from the community- level users 
• Collects relevant open source data.
• Contrasts and validate the open source data with community-based users. 
• Enables better decision making.
• Contributes implementation and M&E of SDGs

Furthermore, we contribute to empower community-based actors (rights holders) and enhance the transparency and accountability of decision-makers (duty bearers)

.

More than 1.8 million people live in fragile settings affecting by human trafficking, insecurity, illegal exploitation of natural resources, high vulnerability to climactic change, etc.

It puts their rights at risk and limits their development options. 

There are also committed actors at the community level with a sound knowledge of the main factors of risk. Unfortunately, their voices normally do not reach the decision-makers ears. 

As the UN Advisory Group on Data for Sustainable Development said: "Too often, existing data remain unused because they are released too late, or not available at the level of detail needed for decision-making¨  http://www.undatarevolution.or...

The difficulty in identifying and collecting reliable, relevant and updated data have two direct negative impact:

For public actors, this makes it difficult to formulate, execute and evaluate public policies aimed at reducing risks, preventing conflicts and guaranteeing human rights.

For the private company it is difficult to evaluate the risks for the local communities and the effective support to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Thus, data has little impact in improving people´s live. We are committed to contribute changing it, while empowering local actors and facilitating accountability of public entities and private companies working on fragile context.

We are aiming to improve 1.8 billion people´s live, globally.

In order to understand better people´s needs in fragile contexts, we are developing a pilot in the region of Mosquitia (Departamento de Gracias a Dios), Honduras, one of the less developed region of the country, in close collaboration with the United Nations Development Program. 

Our users are members of the communities living in the region, especially of Misquito indigenous people, that are guiding us in how to improve our solution, and in how can the tool be even more useful for their needs and tailored to the region´s specificities. 

The data that we are gathering and systematising, collected directly from the local actors, will inform the public policy of the Honduras State in the region, thus improving their lives.

With an app we facilitate the collection of data on the main conflict risk factors, while guaranteeing the privacy and anonymity of community-based users.

The data will be related to four main risk´s spheres: political, economic, environmental/natural resources and security. 

The solution, however, will be tailored for any context. 

Let´s take as example the pilot that we are implementing with UNDP-Honduras in the Mosquitia region.

Our users -members of the Organizations of the Misquito Indigenous People; of the indigenous councils, of local NGOs and UNDP local based staff- will make their anonymous reports selecting an option on the app. I.e.:

 1.The report you want to do is related to:

• Land grabbing
• Extraction of natural resources
• Extraction of archaeological pieces
• Threats against community leaders
• Presence of settlers in indigenous lands
• Other

Once the user selects one option (in this example, presence of settlers) the app will unfold new questions. I.e: 

2.The presence of settlers affects access of the community to:

• Water sources
• Areas where the community hunts
• Areas where the community fishes
• Agriculture lands
• The forest
• Other

3.The access to water sources is restricted by settlers since it:

• Prevents the access to the river bank.
• Prevent the access to the water well
• Other

4. The settlers s that prevent the access to the water well, are established in the indigenous lands since:

• Less than a month.
• More than six months.
• More than a year.
• Does not know
• Other

Once the report is finished, the users can mark a particular spot on a map.

On the other hand, UNDP-Honduras will have a dashboard with all the data collected, being able to:

• Compare risk factors (such as presence of settlers vs threats to community leaders), identifying conflict dynamics and potential violent conflict eruption.
• Receive open-source data related to the region (i.e: national ombudsman office´s report on human rights violations)
• Have an anonymous chat with users to: a) enhance the data gathering (especially when the answer is ´other´ at any step of the report; b) expand and deepen the options offered by the app; c) identify emerging risk factors; d) contrast the open source information with local users.

UNDP will better inform/support Honduran national institutions, thus preventing violent conflict, facilitating public policies and fostering SDGs (i.e offering options to settlers outside the lands owned by indigenous peoples, guaranteeing indigenous community access to water)

There are two main differences with all current existing solutions: firstly, our solution is based on qualitative information gathering instead of a quantitative approach. The users of Eirene Data4Peace will be stakeholders of public institutions and private companies with a direct and deep knowledge of the context. Secondly, we are aiming to increase sentiment of data through direct communication between clients and users, enabling the enhancement of information and the identification of emerging risk factors in real time

The technology that we are using currently is:
○ Node JS for backend
○ React JS for frontend
○ Mongo DB or Mysql for the Database
○ Native Java for the Android application.

In the future we are seeking to use A.I, blockchain, and machine learning.

Theory of change:

Inputs:

·      IT platform

·      Platform maintenance service

·      Local based users in fragile settings

·      Capital

·      Expertise in public policy making

·      Network of potential public entities.

·      Network of potential private costumers.

Activities:

·      Information gathering from local based users

·      Reports and recommendations based on collected data 

-     Development of the platform introducing A.I, blockchain and machine      learning

Outputs: 

• # of users engaged 
• # of report produced 
• # of public initiatives/ programs/ policies supported or based on the information gathered by Eirene
• # of Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) initiatives supported or based on the information gathered by Eirene. 

Outcomes:

• A channel of communication provided between local users and decision-making actors in fragile settings.
• Participation, non-discrimination and empowerment of local communities fostered.
• Knowledge on SDGs implementation at the local level increased.
• M&E of SDGs strengthened.
• Public policies based on community-based, reliable and updated data.
• CSR initiatives based on community-based, reliable and updated data
• Social monitoring of public policies and CRS initiatives strengthened.
• Accountability of public entities and of private companies strengthened.
• Public initiatives/ programs/ policies and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives are more efficient preventing conflict, enabling human rights and fostering development for people living in fragile settings.
• State´s legitimacy strengthened.
• SDG´s reached in fragile settings.

Impact: 

• Public initiatives/ programs/ policies and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives are more efficient preventing conflict, enabling human rights and fostering development for people living in fragile settings.
• State´s legitimacy strengthened.
• SDG´s reached in fragile settings.

We are currently serving 90.000 inhabitants of the Mosquitia region in Honduras, which could be directly beneficed by better informed public policies.

In one year, we are seeking to serve to 22 public institutions in the countries where we already have a consistent network: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia. Depending if they are of the local or national level, the figure could be between an average of 200.000 people and 1.980.000.

In five years, we are aiming to serve to 150 public entities and to 20 private clients. The figure could be between an average of 850.000 people and 15.300.000 people. 

For the next year:

We are looking forward to continue our pilot with UNDP in Honduras, streamlining our solution based on the needs of the people of the Mosquitia Region. 

We aim to sign an MoU with the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, in order to offer our solution tracking and preventing assassinations of social leaders in the areas formerly controlled by the FARC. 

Based on that experience, we are looking forward to find financial support to incorporate blockchain, AI and machine learning to our platform.

We seek to offer the use of our solution to national and local institutions and to private companies in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia

In five years:

We aim to be sustainable, with strong in-house capacities and providing our solution globally.

For the next year:

Financial: to get the economic sustain necessary to: i) enhance our solution capabilities through A.I, blockchain and machine learning ii) develop our client base. 

Cultural: adapt our solution to the needs of the community-based users, continuously refining it, especially in relation to the UX.

Data gathering: in close relation to the barrier mentioned above, guaranteeing the gathering of sufficient data in order to inform public policy.   

Political: The weakness of the state´s institutions in fragile contexts could represent a barrier. Eirene Data4Peace could help the State to make better decisions based on local gathered information, but it could not replace the State in the responds needed to guarantee rights and provide development opportunities.

For the next five years:

Financial: to reach economic sustainability of Eirene Data4Peace, reaching a break-even point during the second year. 

Cultural: adapt our solution to different cultural context, beyond Latin America.

For the next year

Financial: we are actively seeking public and private investment. Applying to events such as SOLVE is a concrete example of it.

Cultural: UX is key. Our solution is based in the local-based culture. Thus, even the language that we are using in the APP is adapted to specific local idioms. However, that is not an obstacle to data-mining and the use of data in a global manner. 

In the long term, we are aiming to enhance our team with multicultural staff, and to support our solution in agreements with international organizations with deep knowledge, insights and understanding of different context, such as UN or international NGOS.

Political: We aim to work closely with state´s institutions, but also with those actors that empower them. A clear example of this triangular approach is the MoU that we signed with the United Nations Development Program in Honduras to develop a pilot in the Mosquitia region, since the partnership aims to promote development, prevention of conflict and of human rights violations, and the strengthening of the state’s presence in the region. 

n/a

Two: one full-time and other part-time

Eirene data4peace adds the experience of its founders on social and private environments, combining programming and strategic analysis on human rights, development and conflict prevention with work experience in natural resource companies and knowledge in social entrepreneurship.

Salvador Aguilera. Administrator and founding partner

Salvador holds a degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in International Development. 

He has more than fifteen years of professional experience (12 with the UN) in fragile contexts working on conflict prevention, development and human rights. 

When he was UN staff member, he was looking for a way to collect reliable and updated data focused on people´s needs at the local level in order to improve the UN support to the national institution’s decision-making process. He did not find it.

He has worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995), Croatia (1998), Albania/Kosovo (1999), Saharawi refugee camps (2000), Colombia (2003-09), Guatemala (2009-11), El Salvador (2011-13) and Honduras (2014-15)

Alberto Olivas. Founding partner

Chemical engineer with 13 years of experience in project management in the energy sector. He has participated, among others, in the development of projects in Colombia (2010-13) and Algeria (2013-16).

He continued his education in parallel achieving a BSc. (Hons) in International Studies by the Open University (UK, 2015) and an MBA (2018) by the Open University Business School

He is currently working with a multinational private firm specialized on hydrocarbon extraction. He dedicates his free-time to Eirene data4peace. 

We have an MoU with the United Nations Development Program in Honduras. 

We work closely with a focus point  person, designated by UNDP, with whom we have regular communication in order to closely follow up of the activities and outcomes of the MoU.  

We also have regular meetings with a panel of three other UNDP staff members, who share a deep experience and sound knowledge of the Mosquitia region, where we are developing the pilot jointly.

Furthermore, the administrator of  Eirene Data4Peace, has traveled regularly to Honduras in order to implement the pilot experience, adapting the solution to the needs of the people in the Mosquitia region. 

Our platform is being developed in cooperation with Digital TPG. An organization with sound experience in social impact solutions.

Our structure of revenue mainly derives from public and private clients. Following the value of equity, public entities will be charged reasonably in accordance with their GDP per capita. This strategy shall facilitate the collection of data, thus increasing data mining and potential clients. 

International private corporations will be charged at a higher fee, based on the average costs of their industries. 

We have assumed a conservative growth of about 20 public clients per year (from year n.2) and about 5 private clients per year (from year n.3). A residual value from year 5 has been calculated assuming a global annual growth of annual. 

Our KPIs involves the social value of our proposal. They are: the satisfaction of our clients, the acceptability of the proposal by locals/users and the acceptability of the tool itself measured as the number of new projects awarded. 

Our roadmap implies moving from well-known contexts to longer psychic distance environments. In our case, the starting point is a pilot with UNDP Honduras. The natural roadmap involves moving to additional public organizations in Honduras such as Ombudsman Office or the Ministry of Human Rights, and then to different countries of Latin America, especially those where we already have a network consolidated: Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia.

From the perspective of private clients, oil and gas is our starting point, moving to other industries, such as infrastructure, mining, IT, pulp&paper, and chemicals 

We have a limited background: international organizations and private sector. Thus, we are entering in an exciting new world for us: social entrepreneurship. 

Having said that, if selected, Solve would help us overcoming the following barriers:

Financial. Exposure is key: building a strong networking with mentors, other entrepreneurs and funders is the only way to accelerating our solution in a short period of time.

Technical. We already have access to communities in fragile settings in developing countries. We have an idea and a prototype. But we are operating in a limited way. We still need to enhance our solution using A.I, blockchain and machine learning in order to go beyond the framework of our pilot, and make our solution global. Mentorship and knowledge sharing would be fundamental in this sense.

Political. We deeply believe that improving people´s live in fragile settings is a common challenge: national institutions, private sector and academia should be involved.  Solve would enhance our network with all relevant stakeholders at a global scale, identifying potential partnership that would boost the solution we are offering. 

n/a

There are two main types of organizations that we are interested in. 

Firstly: social impact start-ups that would have already done the first steps of the journey that we are initiating, thus being in capacity to help us enhancing, expanding and making better our solution. Particularly, we are interested in those initiatives that have been previously selected by the community-driving innovation challenge.

Secondly, MIT as a start member of the academia at the global level. Innovation, fresh ideas, initiatives to imagine a better world and contribute to make it real come from academia. And we sincerely want to work closely to it. 

n/a

We will utilize the prize in order to enhance our solution and to seek its sustainability.

Enhancing the solution:

Currently, in the pilot that we are implementing in the Mosquitia region (Honduras), we are relying on the capacities and experience of the UNDP-Honduras on two main issues: a) Guaranteeing that the information comes from community-based users (stakeholders of the UNDP); b) To find patterns in the information gathered, in order to better inform national institution´s decision making process. 

Once our solution is proved in the pilot phase, we will need to scale it. Introducing: i) Blockchain, to be able to always validate the source of the information; ii) Language understanding/processing in order to enhance the UX and the interaction with users beyond the pilot region;  iii) Machine learning, in order to be able to find patterns in the data gathered and to identify emerging risk-factors at different levels -global, regional, national and local- 

Seeking sustainability:

Once our solution is enhanced, our roadmap implies moving from well-known contexts to longer psychic distance environments. In our case, the starting point is a pilot with UNDP Honduras. 

The natural roadmap involves moving to additional public organizations in Honduras such as Ombudsman Office or the Ministry of Human Rights, and then to different countries of Latin America. From the perspective of private clients, oil and gas is our starting point, moving to other industries, such as infrastructure, mining, IT, pulp&paper, and chemicals 

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a