Case Study: UNHCR Lebanon achieves rapid, data-driven refugee response with CARTO

UNHCR Lebanon - Customer Case Study

UNHCR’s Inter‑Agency Coordination Unit in Beirut faced a shifting, high‑stakes refugee crisis in Lebanon—a small country hosting over a million displaced people—requiring coordination across 200 government, NGO and private partners and 12 specialized working groups. Rapidly appearing and disappearing informal settlements, changing policies and environmental hazards made it essential to maintain detailed geospatial data and give non‑GIS users a simple way to access, visualize and share that information for both long‑term planning and emergency response.

Using CARTO, the Unit built a centralized Information and Map Hub that links maintained datasets to live dashboards and apps via APIs and Dropbox connectors, enabling real‑time updates from field teams. The platform powered impact projections during Storm Norma, improved healthcare mapping and gap analysis, created preventative buffers around waterways, and enabled live tracking of policies and responses—speeding prioritization and coordination across partners and informing subsequent emergency operations.

UNHCR Lebanon

Jad Ghosn

Information Management Officer, Inter-Agency Coordination Unit