IBM Launches Humanitarian Initiatives to Help Contain Ebola Outbreak in Africa
Taps data and citizen engagement against the spread of disease
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE; LAGOS, NIGERIA – 27 Oct 2014: IBM (NYSE: IBM) has launched several initiatives to help curb the spread of Ebola in West Africa.
They include a citizen engagement and analytics system in Sierra Leone that enables communities affected by Ebola to communicate their issues and concerns directly to the government; a donation of IBM Connections technology in Nigeria to strengthen the Lagos State government’s preparedness for future disease outbreaks; and a global platform for sharing Ebola-related open data.
The efforts combine expertise from IBM’s global network of research labs with the company’s years of experience in humanitarian disaster response by applying mobile technology, data analytics and cloud computing to help governments and relief agencies as they seek to contain the deadly disease.
The work benefits from contributions from a number of partners including Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative, Cambridge University’s Africa’s Voices project, Airtel and Kenya’s Echo Mobile.
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