Project description
Revolutionising Ghana’s disaster readiness and response
A West African nation renowned for its rich cultural heritage and vibrant history, Ghana stands as a tapestry of diverse landscapes. Yet, it also faces a labyrinth of challenges in its pursuit of human security. From the shadow of infectious diseases to the spectre of climate-induced floods and man-made catastrophes, safeguarding citizens has never been more intricate. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MUNDI project aims to revolutionise Ghana’s disaster readiness and response. At the heart of MUNDI lies the exploration of data practices vital to disaster risk reduction. By scrutinising risk assessment, operational plans and communication strategies, the project tackles the intricacies of harnessing data in a country with fragmented statistics systems.
Objective
The MUNDI MSCA project explores the uses of digital innovations for the predictive anticipation, real-time analysis, and early intervention in multiple and intersecting threats to human security in Ghana. Specifically, the project takes the focal areas of Ghanas multi-sectoral emergency preparedness and response effort that is, the spread of infectious disease, climate-change related flooding, and man-made disasters in the context of mining activities as case studies to explore data practices in the countrys national disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy. Central tools of DRR, including strategic and evidence-based risk assessment, operational plans and risk communication, are directly tied to the systematic and standardized production and analysis of data about populations and their environs. This has raised concerns about data quality in contexts characterized by historically incomplete and fragmented population registers and statistical reporting systems. The MUNDI project seeks to answer the research question how innovations in data practices anchor the acceleration of interventions in human security in spite of multiple and layered uncertainties about data sources, models and predictions. Exploring this question in the context of Ghana will advance our empirical understanding of the base processes and material foundations of building real-time datafication in emerging data systems, develop new theoretical approaches to evidence-production under conditions of sustained uncertainty, and add to our methodological toolkit new frames for the comparative analysis of digital population data infrastructuring for the purpose of impact forecasting, early warning, and rapid deployment of first responders.
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
2300 Kobenhavn
Denmark