In preparation for the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) 2023, a collective declaration was submitted under the "OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023." This group represents a collaboration among several organizations and communities with common values and goals.
The members of the "OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023" include:
- The UN Smart Maps Group of the UN Open GIS Initiative
- The Watanave Hidenori Laboratory at the University of Tokyo
- Eukarya Inc.
- FOSS4G 2025 Japan Bid Committee
- Welcome Japan
The pledge submitted by this group consists of five fundamental commitments. The Seoul Declaration by FOSS4G Asia 2023 inspires these commitments. They emphasize the importance of sharing reliable geospatial information to support sustainable development. Each group member is dedicated to addressing refugee challenges, guided by the shared value of leveraging geospatial data and technologies for humanitarian and developmental purposes. This collaborative effort underlines the group's commitment to contributing meaningful solutions to refugees' worldwide challenges, utilizing their expertise in geospatial information and technology.
The Global Refugee Forum (GRF) is an initiative under the UNHCR, focusing on enhancing global cooperation and shared responsibility for refugee situations. It involves periodic meetings where stakeholders, including governments and organizations, make voluntary commitments, known as pledges. These pledges are diverse and range from financial aid to policy changes, aimed at improving the lives of refugees and host communities. They are expected to be specific, measurable, and impactful. The GRF 2023 anticipates increased participation and pledges, with a focus on implementing previous commitments, addressing new challenges, and promoting global solidarity in refugee support.
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by the UN Smart Maps Group of the UN Open GIS Initiative
Bridging Digital Divides: Offline Web and GIS Skills Training for Refugees; Empowering refugees with web and GIS skills using UNVT Portable for offline training.
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by the UN Smart Maps Group of the UN Open GIS Initiative, The UN Smart Maps Group and UN Open GIS Initiative have committed to a pledge to empower refugees through geospatial information technology over the medium to long term.
This initiative involves providing refugees with essential web and Geographic Information System (GIS) skills, utilizing tools like UNVT (United Nations Vector Tile Toolkit) Portable powered by Raspberry Pi. The program is designed to facilitate learning in environments even remote from the internet and power grids, emphasizing the potential for offline digital skills training.
By doing so, it seeks to explore the possibility of refugees becoming digital talents who can contribute to the public good. The pledge also focuses on disseminating this technology to a broader audience, underlining a commitment to preventing the creation of more refugees.
KPI for this initiative includes implementing digital skills training for 100 refugees by 2027 and establishing a system capable of responding to crisis situations, thereby contributing to the prevention and resolution of refugee issues.
To enhance this pledge, the following contributions can be integrated:
Training Documentation for Web Mapping: Developing comprehensive training materials specifically for web mapping would be crucial in equipping refugees with the necessary skills to utilize GIS technologies effectively.
Tools for Localization in Local Languages: Providing tools that support localization in various local languages, such as Arabic. This is particularly important as it ensures that the training and resources are accessible to refugees from different linguistic backgrounds, broadening the initiative's impact.
These contributions aim to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of the training provided to refugees, ensuring that they can fully leverage the potential of geospatial technologies. By focusing on localization and comprehensive training documentation, the initiative can be more inclusive and impactful, catering to the diverse needs of refugees across different regions.
Bridging Digital Divides: Offline Web and GIS Skills Training for Refugees; This pledge aims to empower refugees by providing them with essential offline digital and GIS skills, potentially transforming them into digital talents who contribute to the public good and aid in preventing and resolving refugee issues.
- Closing the Digital Gender Gap
- Expanding Connected Education for Refugees through the Refugee Connected Education Challenge
- Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention
Pledge2: led by FOSS4G 2025 Japan Bid committee, the UN Smart Maps Group of the UN Open GIS Initiative, and Eukarya Inc.
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by FOSS4G 2025 Japan Bid committee, the UN Smart Maps Group of the UN Open GIS Initiative, and Eukarya Inc.
Fostering Refugee Inclusion and Accessibility at FOSS4G 2025; Enhancing refugee access to geospatial tech via FOSS4G 2025 and online options.
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by FOSS4G 2025 Japan Bid committee, the UN Smart Maps Group of the UN Open GIS Initiative, and Eukarya Inc., have pledged to enhance the accessibility of Open Geospatial Technology and Data for refugees.
Drawing inspiration from the Seoul Declaration at FOSS4G Asia 2023, this initiative aims to increase refugee participation in FOSS4G conferences and similar events, particularly for those facing travel challenges.
The pledge includes establishing support systems for visa procedures, providing scholarships to enable around 30 refugees to attend FOSS4G 2025, and offering online participation options for those unable to travel.
This effort aims to create an inclusive environment where refugees can actively engage and collaborate with the FOSS4G community, fostering a sense of belonging and contribution within the geospatial technology field.
Fostering Refugee Inclusion and Accessibility at FOSS4G 2025; The pledge focuses on increasing refugee participation in FOSS4G conferences and similar events through visa support, scholarships, and online participation options, fostering a more inclusive environment and enhanced collaboration within the geospatial technology field.
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by Eukarya Inc.
- Refugee Travel Documents – The 21st Century Nansen Passport
- Community Sponsorship
- Refugee Participation
- Connectivity for Refugees
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by Eukarya Inc., has pledged to create employment opportunities for refugees in advanced technology roles through its Re:Earth platform to ensure labor mobility and establish complementary pathways for refugees. This commitment involves providing digital training in Web and GIS technologies to enhance the digital skills of refugees.
The key goals of this initiative include employing over 100 refugees by 2027 through Re:Earth, specifically achieving Woman Labor Mobility for 10 refugee women in India and offering digital skills training in Web and GIS to more than 1000 refugees by 2027.
This comprehensive approach is designed to provide immediate employment and contribute to the long-term stabilization of refugees' livelihoods by enabling them to start their own businesses or secure employment in other companies, thereby integrating them more effectively into the workforce.
Refugee Employment in Cutting-Edge Technologies Through Re:Earth; This initiative is committed to providing employment opportunities for refugees in advanced technology roles, enhancing their digital skills, and contributing to their long-term livelihood stability through immediate employment and empowerment to start businesses or secure employment in other companies.
- Economic inclusion and Social Protection
- Skills-Based Complementary Pathways
- Resettlement
- Supporting Refugee Family Reunification
- Closing the Digital Gender Gap
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by the Watanave Hidenori Laboratory at the University of Tokyo
Visualizing Crises for Global Awareness; The Digital Earth Initiative; Visualizing global crises on Digital Earth, broadcasting real-time humanitarian info.
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by the Watanave Hidenori Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, has pledged to visualize global crises on Digital Earth, aiming to broadcast the realities of crisis-affected areas worldwide.
This initiative includes building a system for information provision from diverse communities, including refugees, to ensure a comprehensive portrayal of these crises. The laboratory is dedicated to contributing to peacebuilding by leveraging technologies such as visualization on Digital Earth.
Key aspects of this pledge involve continuous efforts to visualize areas affected by humanitarian crises, similar to past projects on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Palestine-Israel conflict, and the Syria-Turkey earthquake. Additionally, the laboratory plans to host symposiums under the theme of "Tech for Peace," promoting the role of technology in peacebuilding and crisis response. This pledge represents a commitment to using digital technology for awareness and as a tool for global understanding and conflict resolution.
Visualizing Crises for Global Awareness: The Digital Earth Initiative; The pledge is dedicated to visualizing global crises on Digital Earth, broadcasting the realities of crisis-affected areas, and hosting symposiums under the "Tech for Peace" theme, using digital technology for global awareness, understanding, and conflict resolution.
- Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention
- Connectivity for Refugees
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by Welcome Japan
Advancing Crisis Response with Digital Mapping for Refugee Support by Welcome Japan
The OpenGeoCommunity for GRF2023, led by Welcome Japan's Emergency Response Working Group, along with its Digital Map Sub Working Group and Data Visualization, acknowledges the significant efforts previously made in benchmarking similar maps overseas and in developing a prototype crisis map tailored for war and conflict situations. Building upon this foundation, we are committed to advancing the development and utilization of digital mapping and data visualization tools. Our focus is to address crisis situations effectively, with a specific emphasis on visualizing the support needs of refugees and the available support resources within society. This commitment represents our dedication to enhancing crisis response capabilities through innovative and practical technological solutions. It also aims to create a digital map design that is adaptable and reusable for future crisis response scenarios, and design a GEOINT (Geospatial Intelligence) system utilizing blockchain technology to enhance the reliability and security of data.
The initiative hopes that the digital maps will significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of crisis response, particularly in supporting refugees. We also believe that improved visualization of support needs and resources will aid in better allocation and mobilization of aid and resources. Additionally, the design will be scalable and adaptable, suitable for various types of crises beyond the current focus.
The working groups would continuously refine the digital mapping tools based on real-world application and feedback, while putting effort in the collaboration among different stakeholders in this initiative, including technology experts, humanitarian organizations, and government agencies, which would contribute to more effective and humane crisis responses, ultimately benefiting refugees and societies facing crises.
These are some KPIs that could be set for the Welcome Japan's Crisis Response Working Group and its Sub Working Group on Digital Map and Data Visualization:
- Development Milestones: Complete the development of an advanced prototype of the crisis map tailored for war and conflict situations by 2024.
- User Feedback and Iterations: Gather feedback from at least 50 of different stakeholders, including technology experts, humanitarian organizations, and government agencies, and implement at least 10 rounds of improvements based on this feedback by 2025.
- Training and Utilization: Train 500 of personnel from humanitarian organizations and government agencies in the use of the digital mapping and data visualization tools by 2027.
- Crisis Response Efficiency: Demonstrate a improvement in crisis response efficiency through the use of digital maps in at least 10 real-world crisis situations by 2027.
- Support Resource Visualization: Successfully visualize the support needs of refugees and available support resources in at least 10 crisis situations by 2027.
- Blockchain Integration: Successfully integrate blockchain technology into the GEOINT system for enhanced data reliability and security, with a pilot project completed by 2027.
This initiative aims to enhance crisis response efficiency and aid distribution, particularly for refugees, through the development of adaptable digital mapping and data visualization tools.