Billions of dollars are spent every year to provide life-saving assistance to people devastated by wars and natural disasters. High-quality data is essential in order to design, monitor and evaluate effective policies in these situations.
The coverage of mobile technology has been expanding, and by 2017, 65,9% of the global population were using mobile phones. The meta-data generated by mobile phones is currently being used to assist in the global fight against disasters, epidemics and climate change.
I spoke to Amit Sanyal, Executive Head for Consumer Value Solutions at Mahindra Comviva, to find out more about how mobile operators can help in such situations. Mahindra Comviva provides mobility solutions, and Sanyal has decade of experience in the telecom space.
Sanyal explained how call detail records (CDRs) contain location information that can be used to trace a subscriber’s movements with a reasonable degree of accuracy. An aggregate of individual CDRs yields patterns, trends, and spatial distribution of a large population. Combining CDR analysis with secondary data gives valuable insights on human mobility in the aftermath of epidemics, disasters, and climate change.
