Ushahidi, a solution that was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2008, has secured an undisclosed amount in grant funding from The Rockefeller Foundation.
"We are excited to announce that The Rockefeller Foundation recently granted funds to Ushahidi for our 'Closing the Loop - Machine Learning for Humanitarian and Development Response' project," wrote Ushahidi.
At the same time, Ushahidi has also announced that it will be changing its problem statement.
The firm's initial problem statement was that; “marginalised people don’t have a means to raise their voices in times of crisis, and those who are trying to help them don’t have a way to listen to what is happening on the ground.”
But, the non-profit firm says that - over the past three years - it has conducted technical R&D and user research into solutions to the problem of matching resources to needs.
"The outcomes of this work show there is a current failure in the sector and a massive opportunity to build a machine learning application for matching resources to needs in humanitarian response."
However, "through expanded user research" Ushahidi pointed out that they have come to believe that their platform, has "improved tremendously over the past decade in solving the demand side of this problem statement: better understanding the needs of those who need help". No one, however, has cracked the solution for the supply side of the equation - which is automated, targeted, and immediate response to these needs.
Ushahidi’s new problem statement, therefore, is: “how can community resources and skills be automously [sic] matched to allow for immediate response to critical needs during all types of crisis, thereby reducing human suffering.”
"With the support of The Rockefeller Foundation, Ushahidi will build upon this R&D and our existing user base to evolve and scale the Ushahidi platform into a collaborative reporting and automatic response platform for NGOs, governments, and communities around the world."
Founded in 2008 by David Kobia, Erik Hersman, Juliana Rotich and Ory Okolloh, Ushahidi has raked in over $3.5 million in grant funding over the past decade. Some of the firm's notable investors include; Omidyar Network ($1.4M) and the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) U.S. Global Development Lab ($1.5M). Though conceived in Nairobi, they have since gone on to relocate their headquarters to Florida, USA.