ReliefWeb

Professor Dr. Armida S. Alisjahbana, Minister for National Development Planning for Indonesia, joined Mr El-Mostafa Benlamlih, UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia and Dr Robert Kirkpatrick, Director of the UN Global Pulse, to launch the Pulse Lab Jakarta.

The recent waves of global shocks – food, fuel, and financial – have revealed a wide gap between the onset of a crisis and the availability of real-time information that decision makers need to respond with timely policy actions to help vulnerable populations cope.

Created in 2009, Global Pulse is an innovation initiative of the UN Secretary-General to use today’s new world of digital data and real-time analytics to detect the early signs of stress on vulnerable populations.

Using data collected through a network of in-country Pulse Labs, the Global Pulse will help governments, donors and aid agencies improve their strategies for preventing and responding to crises.

Over the coming year, Pulse Lab Jakarta will collaborate on projects with partners such as the International Labour Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme to research changes in social welfare, especially with regard to food and fuel prices, and employment issues in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Makassar (South Sulawesi) and Medan (North Sumatra).

The availability of real-time data holds tremendous promise: it represents an unprecedented opportunity to track the human impacts of crises as they unfold and to get real-time feedback on how well policy responses are working.

AusAID has been a proud supporter of the Global Pulse initiative since 2010-11, in recognition of the significant potential of this project to contribute to G20 social protection efforts in Indonesia. We provided start-up funding ($1.5 million in 2010-11 and $5 million in 2011-12) to Pulse Lab Jakarta that has enabled it to become the first operational Pulse Lab and a model for the Global Pulse initiative to follow as it expands its network of labs around the globe.