WEST AFRICA: IRIN weekly humanitarian round-up 700 23 August 2013

Table of contents
1. Questioning the Crowd - data verification challenges for humanitarians
2. World Humanitarian Day: Moving forward in Liberia
3. Mali lures civil servants to the north with cash
4. The long-term forecast for extreme weather
5. Conflict gives rise to food crisis in northeast Nigeria
6. Innovating around aid-access hurdles

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Questioning the Crowd - data verification challenges for humanitarians NAIROBI, 20 August 2013 (IRIN) - As evolving technologies multiply the rate of "big data" in emergencies from crowd-sourcing, to crowd-seeding to social media - humanitarian organizations are now focusing on how to ensure it is accurate and thus usable. Read report online

World Humanitarian Day: Moving forward in Liberia MONROVIA, 19 August 2013 (IRIN) - Liberia is getting back to its feet after a protracted civil war that killed over 200,000 people, displaced over a million, and largely destroyed the country's infrastructure and institutions. After a decade of peace, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) is pulling out of the country, saying its needs are shifting from humanitarian to developmental. Read report online

Mali lures civil servants to the north with cash BAMAKO, 21 August 2013 (IRIN) - Mali is offering cash incentives to prompt public servants to return to the northern Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu regions they fled during the Islamist rebel take-over and conflict that followed the March 2012 coup. Read report online

The long-term forecast for extreme weather JOHANNESBURG, 21 August 2013 (IRIN) - If you ask a climate scientist to indulge in some crystal ball gazing to predict what impact climate change could have in the next 10 years, they'd probably refuse. Read report online

Conflict gives rise to food crisis in northeast Nigeria KANO, 22 August 2013 (IRIN) - The Nigerian government has stepped up its emergency food aid in response to severe food insecurity and child malnutrition in the northeast, where the military has been running a sweeping offensive against Boko Haram (BH) Islamists since June. Read report online

Innovating around aid-access hurdles DAKAR, 23 August 2013 (IRIN) - Difficulty reaching conflict- or disaster-hit communities slows down aid delivery, hampers assessment and can lead to groups in remote areas being left out of the aid equation altogether. But new technology, while not a panacea, is helping to remove access barriers. Read report online