Sealr

Using AI, blockchain, and geotagging to help organizations track and verify delivery of aid and monitor and verify project outputs.

Past and Current Partners

UNDP Niger, Humanitarian Grand Challenges, UK Aid, Aid Pioneers, Palladium

Active Countries

Syria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Lebanon, Iraq, UK, Germany, Ukraine

Thematic area(s)

Crisis

Technology

SaaS, AI, Blockchain

Organisation Name

Quaking Aspen

The Problem

The target problem that Sealr aims to address is the lack of accurate information to inform response strategies and coordination efforts during the onset or aftermath of a crisis. It does this by enabling anyone, anywhere to collect demonstrably verified, timestamped, and geotagged images and videos that are automatically linked to a centralised, map-based online dashboard with sophisticated filters to streamline data management and analysis processes. Sealr was largely designed and developed by people from crisis-affected contexts who have a unique understanding of the challenges and needs organisations and communities face in such environments. Quaking Aspen's wider team also includes a number of individuals with many years of diverse experience in the humanitarian and development sectors, which brings substantial insider knowledge of the problems organisations in these fields face.

The Solution

Sealr is a mobile app and online platform that allows anyone, anywhere to collect AI-verified and blockchain-secured visual data that is timestamped, geolocated and automatically linked to a centralized map-based database.

How it works?

Step 1: We equip a UN/government agency responding to a humanitarian crisis with an organisational Sealr account, improving their ability to accurately understand what is happening on the ground in real-time and coordinate their response with other actors.
Step 2: Account admins create as many 'teams' as needed based on location, activity stream, or user group etc. This includes potentially setting up 'teams' for various implementing partners (e.g. local and international NGOs).
Step 3: Once set up, each team invites an unlimited number of end users (e.g., field staff/partner staff/community members/beneficiaries/IDPs/refugees) to download the mobile app via email or SMS and begin collecting verified, geotagged, and timestamped visual data that is automatically linked to their specific 'team' on Sealr's online dashboard platform.
Step 4: End users collect data through Sealr's mobile app to map needs (e.g. damage to shelters and critical infrastructure), capture evidence of changing humanitarian conditions, and monitor and verify aid deliveries and infrastructure rehabilitation activities.
Step 5: All collected data is automatically uploaded to Sealr's highly searchable dashboard once it passes a series of verification checks and can be viewed centrally across all 'teams' by anyone with permission to do so (i.e. actors coordinating humanitarian response).
Step 6: Sealr dashboard users receive a constant flow of real-time visual data that is automatically organised and geo-located on a user-friendly database, enabling them to map and prioritise needs, identify bottlenecks and issues in the field and respond accordingly, maintain a clearer understanding of dynamic situations, and monitor and verify activities."

Bridging the digital divide

Sealr is designed to be as intuitive and user-friendly as possible to accommodate users with varying levels of digital literacy. When an end user takes an image or video using the app, online connectivity is not required. The image/video and its accompanying metadata are encrypted and stored in a non-editable format on a user's device until they establish internet connectivity. Once uploaded, the metadata of the image or video (time, date, location) are still accurately recorded on Sealr's dashboard. Sealr also allows the upload of images and videos with weak connectivity via proprietary AI-compression algorithms enabling users to quickly upload high-quality photos and videos when internet connectivity is weak or unstable.

Impact and highlights

Over 600 individuals have been trained using Sealr (Syria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad).
Sealr has been used to continuously monitor and verify project outputs across 39 locations.
Creative MEL staff reported that using Sealr resulted in 50% cost-saving and 50% time-saving.
Sealr has been used to track and verify the delivery of over 20 tonnes of aid (PPE, food items, NFIs) to Lebanon, Ukraine, Iraq, and Sierra Leone for partners such as UKAid/Palladium, Aid Pioneers, and UK Rail.

Plans for expansion

Given how easily Sealr can be expanded to new countries, expansion plans are global. In terms of meaningful agreements with IPs: they have recently signed a contract with UNDP/Niger River Basin Authority to implement Sealr in support of a long-term climate resilience intervention across 11 countries in Africa. Sealr will soon be rolled out as an internal monitoring agent for a Chemonics project in Yemen. Sealr will be used by Forcier Consulting as part of an LTA to provide monitoring and verification services for a high-budget programme in South Sudan. Pilots are currently being arranged with several organizations, including UN Habitat Somalia, FAO Yemen, Field Ready Pacific, and GOAL MENA.

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