Hackathon Problem Statements
Over two days, your team will tackle one of three challenges using real digital trace data from multiple years of flooding in Pakistan — one of the countries most severely affected by climate-related disasters globally. Your work has the potential to directly inform how IOM, FCDO, and other humanitarian partners think about displacement tracking in future flood events.
Each team selects one problem statement. Your chosen area must be confirmed at the pre-hackathon meeting during the week of 15 June 2026.
All teams are required to use at least one of the provided datasets. The main mobility data for this hackathon is Meta’s Facebook Population and Movement During Crisis data, made available through the Data for Good programme, alongside IOM DTM survey rounds as a validation benchmark. The Pakistan case study and full data documentation — including access details, spatial boundaries, and contextual layers — are described on the Data page; read this before confirming your problem statement.
Given the limited timeframe, the use of additional datasets beyond those provided is generally discouraged. If you have a specific source in mind, consult the organisers in advance.
Participation
Participation is structured around pre-assigned mixed teams. Each team includes at least one domain expert (humanitarian or policy), three technical participants (data or code), and one academic contributor. Effective mixing is deliberate — the strongest hackathon outputs combine operational knowledge with analytical capability.
Pre-hackathon meetings
Two online pre-hackathon meetings will take place during the week of 15 June 2026. These sessions cover team introductions, problem statement confirmation, and a guided walkthrough of the data packs.
1. Replicate and Refine
Take the Colombia and Indonesia Digital Traces SitReps presented on Day 1 and adapt the methodology for the Pakistan case.
The existing reports provide a strong analytical foundation — your team’s task is to bring fresh thinking on visualisations, validation approaches, or how the displacement story is communicated to a policy audience.
📦 Optional starting point: a SitRep template (.zip) you can build from if you’d like.
- How do Meta Data for Good estimates compare with IOM DTM figures for Pakistan?
- Where does the pipeline perform well, and where does it struggle relative to the Colombia/Indonesia benchmarks?
- What refinements to the methodology improve the SitRep’s usefulness for operational decision-making?
2. Make It Interactive
Turn a static Situation Report into something humanitarian responders can actively explore.
Build an interactive map or analytical platform where users can drill into displacement data dynamically — filtering by geography, time window, or severity. The best builds will be linked from future SitReps via QR code, meaning your work could end up in the hands of decision-makers during the next flood.
- What does an interactive SitRep look like in practice for a field responder with 10 minutes?
- How do you communicate uncertainty and data limitations in an interactive format without overwhelming the user?
- What interaction patterns best serve a non-technical policy audience?
3. See It Coming
Move from response to anticipation. Use historical Pakistan flood data to develop analysis or tooling that helps agencies act before displacement peaks.
This is the frontier of humanitarian data work — there is no settled answer, and your team has genuine latitude to explore.
- Can Meta mobility signals in the days before a flood peak serve as early warning indicators?
- What vulnerability factors (infrastructure, demographics, flood history) best predict where displacement will be most severe?
- How can anticipatory outputs be structured so that they are actionable within an agency’s existing operational workflow?
Outputs and recognition
All participant contributions incorporated into future published works will be acknowledged. Selected policy stakeholders will return on Day 3 afternoon for final team presentations. Judges include IOM operational staff, FCDO policy advisors, and academic reviewers.