Data-Pop Alliance (DPA) is proud to announce that its project OPAL for Floods has been selected as the winner of the Anticipatory Action Accelerator by Mercy Corps Ventures’ Humanitarian Venture Lab. The project received a USD 100,000 award to pilot an innovative, AI-powered system that will help communities in Senegal anticipate and act before floods occur.
Chosen from more than 200 applications across 60 countries, OPAL for Floods stood out for its unique approach to anticipatory action, combining cutting-edge technology with community-driven insights to strengthen local resilience.
Communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis deserve tools that match the urgency of their reality. OPAL for Floods brings together technology and trust—giving local responders the power to anticipate floods and protect lives with dignity and speed. We are grateful to Mercy Corps Ventures for believing in a model of innovation that is ethical, inclusive, and grounded in justice.
About OPAL for Floods
OPAL for Floods is an integrated decision-support platform designed to move humanitarian action from reactive response to proactive prevention. It connects predictive analytics to early warning systems and automated cash transfers, allowing governments, humanitarian organizations, and local actors to anticipate floods and act before disaster strikes.
By combining artificial intelligence, Earth Observation data, and smart contracts, the platform provides early, data-driven insights and triggers transparent, rapid financing for affected communities. The pilot will focus on Senegal’s Grand Dakar and Thiès regions, two areas that have experienced recurrent flooding and urgent humanitarian impacts.
The initiative brings together a consortium of partners:
The Hypothesis Behind OPAL
The project is guided by a clear hypothesis: If local actors have access to timely, localized flood forecasts, can act on transparent, data-driven triggers, and can release funds automatically through smart contracts, they can protect people before disasters strike.
This approach will test whether predictive data, community engagement, and automated financing can collectively transform humanitarian response into an anticipatory, locally led system that saves lives and strengthens trust.
What the Award Will Support
With support from Mercy Corps Ventures, DPA and its partners will design, implement, and test the OPAL for Floods pilot over a 16-month period beginning in September 2025.
The grant will fund the following key activities:
- Developing and testing a localized AI-powered flood forecasting model using satellite and historical data.
- Designing parametric triggers that automatically activate pre-defined early action protocols.
- Integrating smart contracts to deliver rapid and transparent cash transfers to pre-identified local delivery partners.
- Creating a multilingual communication system that disseminates flood alerts and preparedness messages via SMS, IVR, and WhatsApp.
- Training more than 50 practitioners from government agencies, NGOs, and civil society organizations to use the platform.
The pilot is expected to directly benefit over 100,000 residents in flood-prone areas through improved preparedness, faster action, and better-targeted interventions.
How Success Will Be Measured
The pilot will measure impact by comparing OPAL for Floods to current humanitarian response practices in Senegal:
Dimension | Current Baseline | Pilot Target |
Speed of cash delivery | Cash assistance reaches affected areas in 5–14 days after floods. | ≤ 12 hours after trigger activation. |
Forecast accuracy | National-level alerts lack local precision; high false-alarm rates. | +10 percent accuracy and –10 percent false alarms using localized AI forecasts. |
Workflow automation | Manual verification and fund approval cause delays. | ≥ 30 percent fewer manual steps from trigger to cash. |
Community messaging | Alerts often miss at-risk communities, especially in local languages. | ≥ 90 percent delivery rate in Wolof, Pulaar, and French; clarity ≥ 4.5/5. |
Local adoption | Predictive tools rarely used by local actors. | 50+ practitioners trained and actively using OPAL. |
Financial transparency | Opaque cash transfer tracking and reconciliation. | On-chain audit trail and real-time dashboards. |
Looking Ahead
Following the pilot, DPA and its partners will explore opportunities to scale OPAL for Floods across West Africa, engaging with entities such as the Government of Senegal, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and other institutions working to strengthen anticipatory climate action.
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