Flowminder

Flowminder is a non-profit foundation that specializes in the analysis of de-identified mobile phone data, satellite imagery, and household survey data for humanitarian and international development purposes. Established formally in 2013, the organization was pioneered by researchers who first demonstrated the potential of mobile operator data to predict the spread of infectious diseases during the 2010 Haiti cholera outbreak. Flowminder works with governments, United Nations agencies (like WFP and UNFPA), and mobile network operators (MNOs) to map the distribution, characteristics, and movements of vulnerable populations. By analyzing Call Detail Records (CDRs), the foundation provides decision-support tools that help relief agencies deliver the right supplies to the right people at the right time during disasters or epidemics. To facilitate this work securely, they developed FlowKit, an open-source analytical toolkit that allows for compliant data access behind an MNO's firewall, surmounting privacy obstacles. Flowminder’s mission is to ensure that decision-makers in low- and middle-income countries have access to high-quality, evidence-based data to transform lives at scale while maintaining the highest standards of data ethics and privacy.