REACH has a vocation to act as a multi-agency advocacy platform and a resource centre for engaging humanitarian actors in promoting best practices in data collection and use.

Leveraging on the expertise and experience of its members, REACH is a multi-agency initiative that strengthens practices in data collection, processing and dissemination in order to enhance coordination and planning by the wider aid community. Working at country and global levels, REACH has a vocation to systematically partner with aid coordination bodies (notably clusters and inter-cluster initiatives) in order to facilitate the development and implementation of effective information tools and processes.

REACH proposes a set of complementary interventions that are conducted on a global level and through specific deployments to countries in-crisis or at-risk-of crisis. At global level, REACH partners with aid actors and coordination structures in order to promote the development and implementation of best practices for the collection and use of humanitarian data.  At country level, REACH teams intervene in contexts of crisis or risk-of crisis in order to facilitate rapid and effective collection, processing and dissemination of key information that supports decision making and coordination by aid actors.

REACH’s global level activities are coordinated from its Geneva headquarter. They include four complementary and parallel actions:

• Promotion of partnerships with global clusters and other humanitarian coordination structures, to strengthen information management tools and practices.
• Development of a resource center acting as a reference point for the wider aid community on collection and use of data in humanitarian contexts.
• Development of a platform that enables regular exchange, advocacy and coordination among key aid stakeholders on issues related to data collection and use in humanitarian contexts.
• Provision of technical backstopping for REACH country level deployments.

To meet its global objective, REACH has a vocation to expand its membership beyond its founding partners, enlarging and enhancing its governance structures accordingly.

 REACH’s country level interventions are facilitated by a dedicated and rapidly deployable team of assessment, database, mapping and remote sensing experts. In its country deployments, REACH promotes three parallel and complementary services, adapted to the needs and circumstances:

• Collection of data through: (a) facilitation of interagency field-level assessments; (b) technical, social and economic surveys at the individual level; (c) community based assessments including focus groups using semi-structured techniques; (d) geocoded data collection such as points of interest, photographs, and boundary development; (e) situation-analysis using remote sensing technology; (f) secondary data gathering and analysis from a range of stakeholders including UN reports, NGO reports, media, and more; and (g) any other data available that is of use to actors.
• Processing of collected data in reports, publications, static and interactive web maps.
• Dissemination of data products to key aid stakeholders and monitoring of its impact in informing decision making and coordination.

REACH country level interventions are conducted in close coordination and often on behalf of aid coordination structures. Where needed, REACH partners with relevant clusters and inter-cluster lead agencies to set up and/or strengthen humanitarian information hubs that facilitate access to information by operational aid actors.

• What is REACH?

• Why was REACH created?