Data cloud company Snowflake and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have collaborated on the ‘Bridging Climate Change and Human Mobility’ hackathon. The event’s goal is to offer insights on the intersection of environmental factors with migration management and policymaking in the East and Horn of Africa (EHoA). The two-part hackathon – held in London and Nairobi this month – explores data-driven solutions and aims to bolster understanding of the relationship between climate change, natural disasters, environmental degradation, and human mobility in the region. Fifty participants contributed to the event, including tech giant Microsoft and the London School of Economics. As of June 2023, three million people are internally displaced due to drought across these countries, with an estimated 6.6 million internally displaced people living in drought-affected areas. Fawad Qureshi, Global Industry Field CTO at Snowflake, said: “With the power of modern cloud data platforms, we can use deep data insights to rapidly create a more accurate picture of the impact of climate change on migration. We are experiencing a world that is undergoing seismic climate changes, and IOM’s hackathon is a springboard to better understand its impact on migration trends, and finding solutions that can positively impact lives.”
