105 Humanitarian Assistance term strategies—such as determining how to fill the gap in grain caused by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Expanding the Reach Analysts at Cornell University and local universities such as Marondera University in Zimbabwe also use the data stored in the DIEM Hub to examine root causes of food insecurity and to come up with strategies to mitigate hunger. “Professors and their students investigate possible connections between shocks and food insecurities,” Amparore said. “They explore the factors that can increase or decrease the resilience of certain households compared to others.” To further extend analytical capabilities, the DIEM team is investigating how artificial intelligence–based machine learning can process imagery and further automate answers to questions. DIEM quickly gained momentum and a growing appreciation from the community of food providers it serves. The work appeared in the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal Nature in 2023. The team has visits planned to the various DIEM regions to build awareness of the available data and encourage local investment in the initiative. In its ongoing work, DIEM will continue to build awareness of the tool to support sustainable and sustained food monitoring. The ultimate goal is to foster stability in the countries prone to multiple shocks. “What we hear in the headlines is people being given emergency food, which is clearly a critical intervention,” Marsland said. “What we’re trying to understand in more detail is what that does to people’s lives—their families—and as importantly, what to do about it.” The DIEM team uses ArcGIS StoryMaps stories to communicate analytical findings and creates interactive maps such as this one about the extent of flooding across the Sahel region of Africa from July through September 2023. Zooming into each country displays the flood extent to gauge the level of disruption.
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