Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—in partnership with the Ad Council, launched last week the “FWD campaign”; an initiative that highlights the devastating effects of the crises in the Horn of Africa and encourages people to spread awareness. You can donate $10 by texting “GIVE” to 777444 famine relief.

FWD stands for Famine, War, Drought: the three root causes of the dire situation in the Horn. The campaign is also a call to action—that people get informed, get engaged and forward this information on to their friends, colleagues, and families.

The FWD campaign is a novel USAID initiative that aims to improve communication with the American public and share information. “Frankly, it’s the first foray the agency is taking into open government, open data, and citizen engagement online,” said Haley Van Dyck, Director of Digital Strategy at USAID. The goal is to make data open and sharable to tell stories about the crisis and the work being done on the ground in an interactive way.

Open government, open data

One of FWD’s objectives is to make information, data and maps easily accessible to online audiences. To this end, USAID provides infographics, interactive maps and tool kits that people can use to learn about the crisis in simple, clear ways—and more importantly share that information with others. The agency builds the maps with open source mapping tools and data sets publicly accessible on data.gov. The six interactive maps available provide details on food insecurity, drought, affected populations, refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) movements as well as USAID’s response.

Citizen engagement

To raise awareness and engage the public using social media, USAID has partnered with Google, Facebook and Twitter to make information-sharing as easy as searching, tweeting or updating one’s status. There’s also a series of Public Service Announcements (PSA) that will air in major media markets throughout the country. These PSA’s will be made available on the agency’s website, as well as on YouTube.

The fundraising component of the FWD encourages people to donate $10 to famine relief by texting “GIVE” to 777444. The agency is partnering NGOs delivering critical assistance in the Horn. General Mills has agreed to match the first 2,000 text donations that come through the FWD campaign, up to $20,000.

A need for urgent response

Alarming facts about the crisis in the Horn should prompt the public to follow in the footsteps of Andrew Andasi, an 11-year-old

Ghanaian schoolboy, who used social media tools to raise $4,000—as of August—for famine victims. The crisis is killing, starving, or displacing over 13 million people. It is the worst drought in 60 years and the worst famine in 20 within a context of continued violence. In Somalia, one child dies every six minutes: the time it will take to finish this piece.

Getting involved is as simple as texting “GIVE” to 777444 to donate $10. More importantly, you can “FWD—forward—the facts” by tweeting, e-mailing, and updating your Facebook status to spread awareness about the crisis. The FWD campaign is an innovative way to engage citizens into action by making data easily accessible to the public.