Unusually heavy rainfall in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, which began in April and continued for several months, caused widespread damage and killed more than 180 people. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power and access to clean water across the region, and vital infrastructure like bridges and main roads were heavily damaged. The floods have been considered the worst to hit the country in the last 80 years.
SIMS Activation Overview
SIMS was activated in May in order to provide the IFRC-led operation with Information Management process and product support. A first round SIMS Remote Coordinator ("SIMS Co") was selected quickly, and a second round coordinator took over a month later. SIMS Coodination support ended in the beginning of August 2024.
Remote Support Overview
Mapping
Teams were very keen to get as clear of a picture as possible of the scope of the floods, and consequently, many of the initial asks were mapping related. There were maps produced that helped visualize which communities were most affected, which rivers were most likely to be affected in subsequent storms, and the locations of clean drinking water access points. The remote supporters were able to start making use of map templates that we have begun consolidating on learn-sims.org.
During the 2nd and 3rd round IM & SIMS Coordinator rotations, mapping needs evolved to more specific products. An interactive map visualizing water testing results across the affected area was made and used by the WASH team to understand where there was access to clean water. An infograpic map of the Jacuri river was also made and showed through aerial photos water levels of the river around areas the operation was assisting in.
Mobile Data
The operations team on the ground wanted to get assessments up and running quickly, and remote supporters helped out by creating XLS forms and fixing Kobo server configuration issues.
SIMS members spent many hours converting surveys and forms from a Word document into Kobo forms. An operations activity tracker used to inform SitRep updates, a household registration form and a Damage and Needs Assessment (DANA) form were all developed by SIMS members. Databases were also developed pre-emptively to organize data submitted through the DANA.
Secondary Data Consolidation
Many sources of information were readily accessible to remote and deployed teams, which made it possible for SIMS to take on the task of collecting and managing these sources to streamline reporting and situational awareness. For instance, a web scraper monitored a government website with impact statistics in order to integrate them with other primary and secondary data points on dashboards.
Infographics
Several key inforgraphics were made by SIMS members. A distribution map showing items and services delivered to affected areas was made and updated several times. CEA materials to use in the CVA program were also developed and included a poster and brochure with key messages for community members to understand how to participate in the CVA program.
Learning and Reflections
Mobile Data Collection Capacities
A lot of time was spent digitizing Word-based forms into Kobo, but then some of the forms were not used due to a lack of mobile/digital data collection experience of the volunteers or a change in preference. This was quite frustrating, especially given the amount of time spent on getting the forms right and the back and forth with the operation to do so.
Creative Coordination Around Data
Constraints around available, well-trained volunteers and access to sufficient quantities of gear led to challenges with assessments. This led the SIMS team and deployed surge personnel to seek out alternative ways of getting accurate insights into the ways that the floods affected people. A partnership with a local university helped us plug several gaps we had with data, and represents a promising model in other operations where SIMS could think beyond the Movement and other traditional humanitarian actors for data partners.
Importance of Deployed IM Staff
Though SIMS works completely remotely, it still depends on having someone—either dedicated IM surge personnel or someone from another sector with sufficient IM experience—to be the eyes and ears within the operation. A large gap between the first and second round IM Coordinator led to challenges for SIMS Remote Coordinators to market the network's services and solicit feedback on products we created.
Better Socialization of IM's Offerings and Functions
Refining a strategy for marketing SIMS' offerings without inviting too many requests has been an ongoing challenge for the network, and this operation underscored the importance of helping socialize our services better for incoming Operations Managers and IM Coordinators. The large gap between deployed IM Coordinators made it difficult to manage the request and feedback cycle if a leader wasn't as familiar with how SIMS operates.
There was some frustration around the SIMs Coordinator not being able to "map out" SIMS members and give absolute assurance that tasks would be completed when requested, and at times, when requests were not delivered fast enough. More socialization around how the SIMS network functions is recommended (that is a volunteer network and participation in supporting requests is not guaranteed).
New Platform Testing
After Trello announced new limitations on free accounts, the SIMS governance committee began a search for alternative solutions. This was the first operation where we tested using GitHub projects to manage tasks. As a Kanban board, GitHub was a great alternative which mostly worked as we hoped. The main issues to consider are around access. Adding members to the organization grants them access to all repositories, which isn't the same granular control we're used to with Trello where each member must be added to a board manually. There are also a few processes that require overcoming a (small) learning curve, such as how new tasks are initially created as "Items" which then need to be converted to "Issues", which isn't totally intuitive for new users. Ultimately, GitHub is recommended as the task management platform for now, pending research into any other solutions.