GoodGeist
A podcast on sustainability, hosted by Damla Özlüer and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network. Looking at sustainability issues, communications, and featuring global guests from a wide variety of sectors such as business, NGOs and government.
GoodGeist
Harnessing Technology for Change, with Sait Beyazyürek
In this episode we're talking to Sait Beyazyürek of NeedsMap, in a fascinating look at how to transform disaster relief through innovative digital solutions that connect those in need with those who can help.
NeedsMap functions as a digital marketplace for social good. Rather than commercial transactions, the platform facilitates the exchange of essential items and services using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to pinpoint exact locations of needs. This revolutionary approach proved crucial during Turkey's devastating 2023 earthquakes and also helped with Spain's 2024 floods in Valencia, where WhatsApp chatbots and real-time mapping tools helped coordinate relief efforts with unprecedented efficiency.
Beyond disaster response, NeedsMap addresses structural inequalities through data-driven decision-making, ensuring aid reaches marginalised communities including refugees and low-income families. Their work demonstrates how resilience and adaptability, forged through Turkey's experiences with multiple crises, can benefit humanitarian efforts worldwide.
Listen in to discover how we might use our technological expertise to address the pressing humanitarian challenges of our time.
Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.
Good Geist, a podcast series on sustainability hosted by Damla Özler and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone. You are listening to Good Ge Guys, the message on sustainability which is brought to you by the DNS Network, the global network of agencies dedicated to making the world a better place. This is Damla from Mira Agency, Istanbul, and.
Speaker 3:This is Steve from Creative Concern in Manchester. This podcast series explores global sustainability issues, how they're communicated and what creativity can do to make positive change happen.
Speaker 2:So in this episode we're going to talk to Said Beyazurek, the General Manager of NeedsMap. Said is an NGO professional with over 15 years of experience in social impact, sustainability, csr communications and stakeholder engagement. As the General Manager at NeedsMap, he oversees the organization's strategic direction, operations and impact evaluation.
Speaker 3:And I feel like I'm kind of elbowing in because you guys go back such a long way. I feel like the third part here. So you also worked as Deputy General Manager at DEMA, international Development Management, and you've led on CSR, sustainability, communication strategies, worked with a whole raft of large scale projects with global NGOs and you're a very, very good multilingual communicator. So it's absolutely brilliant. So thank you so much for taking time to talk to Damla and myself.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Damla and Steve. It's an honour to be invited to this programme. Thank you, Damla and Steve. It's an honour to be invited to this programme.
Speaker 3:Thank you. So, and like I say you two, I think you two go back a long way. You've been doing great work for a long time, but for the benefit of our listeners, we'd love to find out a little bit more about your backstory. So tell us about your journey to becoming a leading international social impact professional.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Thank you, steve. I mean, of course, like you know, we have different career paths leading to, you know, the places we are occupying right now. But initially I started my career in journalism, like PR and marketing communications, but then, you know, of course, as we can go to a deeper meaning, like a search phase in our early or, you know, mid-30s, I realized that my passion for making a real sustainable impact on society was more, like you know, prevalent at the time. So I started to find a way to work for an NGO and this led me to focus on, like you know, communication for good and, you know, social good initiatives. Like I started to work at ACHEV Mother Child Education Foundation. That was my first career path through civil society in Turkey. The foundation's main focus is on early childhood and the empowerment of their parents, as well as young women in general. So I did a lot of advocacy work on involved fatherhood and gender equality, and especially in the private sector. So we had the chance to work on an involved fatherhood campaign with Damla as well back then. Back then, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And then I moved to IDEMA, international Development Management, as the Deputy General Manager responsible for CSR and sustainability campaigns for various private companies and NGOs, both on national and multinational levels. So I tried to make some, you know, impactful projects with private sector on, again, gender equality, women empowerment or, you know, the social inclusion of migrants in Turkey. So those experiences roughly shaped, they shaped my path and prepared me to, you know, lead the NeedsMap. This is, as you know, a platform that bridges the gap between technology and social impact. So I joined NeedsMap as a general manager exactly a year ago, where now I try to oversee strategic direction and operations. So we are trying to lead initiatives that not only help those in need but also empower communities through technology, especially in times of crisis like natural disasters.
Speaker 2:Well, let's tap into that. As much as I want to make a huge parade of our background together and the good work we have done together, but I have to tap into the current business. So in NeedsMap, in your own words, NeedsMap Europe is revolutionizing the way humanitarian assistance is delivered. By leveraging technology, you are able to provide innovative solutions that address the needs of vulnerable communities. So what is the working mechanism of your work, without the technical jargon?
Speaker 4:I'll try to make it as simple as possible. So NeedsMap is essentially a platform that connects those in need with those who can help, using technology to facilitate this process. Like you, can imagine it as an online marketplace, but instead of buying or selling products, people share their needs, whether they require food, clothes, medical assistance or basic necessities. So anyone can post their needs on the platform, whether they are an individual, a school or an NGO. Once the need is posted, the platform's technology helps match the person in need with the right donor, whether that's an individual organization or a company.
Speaker 4:So what makes this different from traditional charity is that it uses a map-based interface which shows exactly where the need is located. So it's like it uses the GIS technology to locate the exact pinpoint of the need. So this allows people in nearby areas to step in and help directly. So the platform ensures that the information is accurate and verified. Of course, data verification is at the core of our business, of course, so it makes it trustworthy both for donors and recipients. For example, to give a brief example on that, after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey back in 2023, so NISMAP facilitated real-time communication between the affected citizens and local authorities through tools like its WhatsApp chatbot, so it allowed people to report their immediate needs and receive support quickly, and this was all mapped on a digital platform. So the technology not only improves efficiency, but also ensures that the support reaches those who need it most, and whether they are, you know, can imagine in a remote village or at the city center.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's pretty impressive, In fact, I think, and also will give everybody hope. Say so, in fact, I think, and also we'll give everybody hope. Say it. So, just as we think that the world of tech is becoming an evil force for right wing domination, you prove them wrong and that's amazing. So, transforming data into social solidarity, navigating tech around social welfare and impact is the core of your business. Welfare and impact is the core of your business, and so, with your expertise in that particular nexus across and across borders and all these fields, can you paint for us a bit of a picture of what kind of trajectories the current technological advances are taking in terms of being open to good for all?
Speaker 4:yeah, I mean, I think that that's a very accurate question. Like you know, steve, because we are discussing it, you know, time, like with our technology department as well. Like you know, whether you know the use of AI for good will, you know, overtake its potential use for evil? So you know, this is a very hot topic among our team as well. So, of course, like you know, technology, as you said, has revolutionized how we address social challenges and, of course, it has a huge potential for social good. For instance, like in context of disaster management.
Speaker 4:Technology, of course, can save lives, you know, at the most basic level. So NeesMap uses artificial intelligence and geography information systems to predict natural disasters and respond quickly when they occur. For example, like you know our models, our predictive models. They analyze historical data to predict the likelihood of floods or wildfires, giving local authorities and citizens the required time to prepare and take preventive action. So this is the. I think that this is where the future of AI for good lies in when it comes to, you know, disasters related to climate crisis. So, for instance, when a disaster strikes, of course, as you know, the speed of the response is very critical to save lives. So, using real-time data collection and GIS-based visualization and, of course, like you know, ai-driven insights from history, so we can assess the damage, understand the needs on the ground and connect the right aid with the right people.
Speaker 4:For instance, you know, damla mentioned NeedsMap Europe and you know, of course, our work has also extended to, you know, different geographical locations and, for instance, during the 2024 floods in Spain, valencia, our team quickly deployed to the affected areas and they used open source geographic data and demographic analysis to create the so-called Spain Flood Map Platform.
Speaker 4:So we worked together with NGOs and local authorities in Valencia and then we came up with a Spain Flood Map Platform. So, of course, this also enables better coordinated disaster relief efforts, like you know, by visualizing the needs of the affected populations in real time. This is the like you know, disaster part of our work. But, of course, beyond disaster response, technology also plays a crucial role in addressing social inequalities, like you know, poverty and all. So we also use data-driven decision-making to ensure that the aid reaches marginalized groups such as migrants, refugees or low-income families. You know this is independently from whether it's a disaster or not. Like you know, it's in technically, like you know, normal times as well. So through those algorithms, the platform can match donors with recipients, ensuring that the resources are distributed efficiently and effectively. So just in order to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. And since you mentioned the social part, I want to tap a little bit into that. You don't only use innovation in a context of technology, but also in a social context. So what does social innovation refer to in your ecosystem?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean our founders, Ali, ercan and Mert. They are, you know, social entrepreneurs very well known in Turkey. So, social innovation and needs map, you know it goes beyond just using technology. It's about, you know, like, creating systems, like constantly creating new systems or constantly evolving, about creating and unconventional solutions to address social issues like poverty, inequality and disaster response. In our case, For example, like you know, as you know, damla, the concept of Imece. You know the traditional Turkish form of, say, community solidarity. So this is the concept of online Imece, as we call it, is at the heart of our mission. So, you know, we use technology to revive this cultural practice of Ime and our geographies, like you know, social solidarity, roots and traditions.
Speaker 3:So, seyed, I want to change tack a tiny bit, following up on a couple of things you mentioned there before we go back to so. What we'd love to hear about is your plans for needs map europe and where you're going to go next. But before we do that, you mentioned the hot topic debate that you're, you and the team, have around ai, and and I'm really fascinated by the fact that we, as communicators, work really hard to be responsible communicators, you know. So we don't do greenwash. We look at gender equality, we look at how you avoid stereotyping, and you know, I think we work really hard, don't we, to be responsible communicators, and I'm really conscious that AI doesn't actually have an ethical code hardwired into it, and so, if you're looking at social innovation and issues of equality, but using tech, this is such a fascinating area, isn't it? Because you're essentially working with an evolving and very rapidly moving technology that doesn't have a moral compass. So what kind of debate do you and the team have about that?
Speaker 4:compass. So what kind of debate do you and the team have about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I think that this is the, you know, the core of our debate on ai and social good. I I can say that you know, we as a team, when we, you know, we get together to talk about a new, like you know, a new product or a new project, we always try to have this moral compass you've been mentioning, like earlier. So we are kind of, you know, like you know, community say, not as only a team, but a community with our volunteers and supporters, and we always have to take into consideration their needs and their shared values.
Speaker 4:I think, and this is our moral compass when trying to use AI and try to integrate AI models in our work. But you know, it's a constant, I think that is a constant research and it's a constant debate that has to go on because you know you can never know at what point something becomes, you know, more evil gradually. You know you can use technology for good and you always think that you do it for social good, but there can come a time when the data collection or the prediction or any kind of system, ai-based system or algorithm, can also be used for evil. I mean, there will always be this, I think, tension and challenge between the two poles.
Speaker 3:Fascinating, fascinating. Sorry, damlar, I took us off script there, but I I'm interested because I mean the, the. Where that leads us, say it, is that the moral compass is the is the total and absolute responsibility of whoever is generating the prompt into the ai. And fascinating, fascinating. We could go into a very deep bit of philosophy around that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Well, if we consider AI is also learning from what we're doing, it's like it's another question what we will teach it. I mean, will we teach it solidarity, or will we teach it the other way, the other way, right?
Speaker 3:The bad way.
Speaker 2:You go ahead with ours, no problem with it.
Speaker 3:I did want to go back Damla if that's okay to say with the borders that you're crossing and how NeedsMap Europe was founded in Tequilla, but you've already said did an amazing job in Valencia, and so I think it'd be lovely to hear a little bit more about your experience of bringing a Turkish tech for good startup into the European market and what you're working on at European scale at the moment.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, of course, the relative success of NeedsMap in Turkey, you know, which was founded 10 years ago. It has provided some valuable lessons that we are now trying to apply in Europe as well. So the platform's effective use of GIS and AI in disaster management that has been particularly impactful. And this is what we are trying to. You know, import. We have been importing this from our partners, like you know, ESRI in the United States, for instance, and we are trying now to export those know-hows and, you know, products in order to create more impact in near geography.
Speaker 4:So, when we have expanded to Europe, particularly, as you mentioned, with the establishment of Needs Map Europe in Brussels, so we brought this experience of leveraging technology for disaster response and humanitarian aid and, for example, as we've mentioned earlier, after the floods in Valencia, we used the model developed in Turkey to deploy the WhatsApp chatbot to help coordinate the aid between affected populations and local authorities.
Speaker 4:So this model, I think that it proved to be the effective model in ensuring that the right resources reach the right people at the right time, and I can also say that, you know, we also have the experience in Turkey of local partnerships and community engagement. This is also, I think, that the other two pillars. We are trying to base our work in Europe. So, of course, when we have to go to a new place and work in there with local communities and local authorities, we always have in mind that people might have different sensitivities, local sensitivities or, you know, values and everything, so we are trying to adapt to a whole new, like local, concept. So in Turkey, like you know, we work closely with local authorities like the Turkish Red Crescent or AFAD in the earthquake response. But now we are replacing, you know, we are trying to replicate, sorry, those collaborations in Europe where still we continue to work with local NGOs and government agencies, just to adapt the platform to regional needs, as I mentioned, and to ensure that it functions effectively in various different contexts.
Speaker 2:I would like to elaborate on this a little bit more. Said because, having worked in two worlds, I may say I also have some kind of experience about even it can be disasters or it can be something else. But what does Turkey's experience bring to the table? I think there is something more there, Because here, unfortunately, for the last decade, we had enormous disasters and also an economic crisis that led to the humanitarian efforts to be more agile and, in a bigger context, maybe we can talk about I know that also Europe has been suffering from a lot of climate related disasters and so on, and also the work of humanitarian aid with the refugees is critical in the European scale too. But what do you think that the experience you've got here brought different elements to the europeans?
Speaker 4:well, I think that it's.
Speaker 4:It's a very easy question to answer because you know, as you said, you know we've been, uh, like you know, we've been experiencing, like you know, disasters at enormous scale in the last decades in turkey. So, so, yeah, I mean, first of all, resilience. I would say, like you know, resilience, because you know, in Turkey, in order to survive, you know, through all these natural and economical like you know catastrophes, you have to be resilient. So resilience, I think that is the first value that we are trying to, you know, have with our minds when we travel somewhere else.
Speaker 4:Of course, adaptability we always have to adapt to different situations, whether those are natural or political, or economic. So we have to adapt to always new situations. So, adaptation and adaptability of our products or services I think that is also another important issue, and I think that the thing that is important the most Turkish, I would say, because I also mentioned it earlier make people less in need in times of disasters and crises, but also trying not to be very, very high profile on how we try to make people more comfortable and less in need. So I think that this is also a kind of tradition that we are trying to bring with us whenever we go elsewhere.
Speaker 2:Sorry to cut in, steve, I know you want to go more, but I just want to ask this one May that be because, when thinking of European context, the systems work, so solidarity is kind of a more systematic thing, but here, since the systems doesn't work, we have to work more. Okay, steve over to you?
Speaker 4:no, I didn't say that. I didn't say that.
Speaker 3:You said yeah, I did well, no, I mean, come on, guys, as as damla has lectured me many times, say so. You know, turkey is the gateway between worlds. It is both modern and ancient. It is secular and driven by faith. It's essentially the heart of everything in geopolitics in the world we know today. So of course, you're going to export to the rest of the world. It's come naturally. I've got a quick one back on tech. Actually, this is a different one, different one. It's just I'm really interested.
Speaker 3:So we've done a bad thing in this podcast. Say, we used an acronym and we didn't explain it. So you mentioned GIS and for anybody who doesn't know what GIS stands for, it's geographical information systems, and I think it's really interesting. I'd love to know more about your thoughts around the potential for GIS for addressing social need, because I know when we've used it for projects. It's incredibly powerful how you can look at the demographics of a population and understand the level of wealth, the level of education, the shape of their households, their habits, how they vote, how they travel. It's an incredibly rich data source, isn't it? And the potential, I think, for GIS to be a really smart force for good is fascinating. Could you explain a little bit more about that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, I mean I will tell that you know our basic platform. You know our core business is, you know, located on needsmaporg, but we also have created, is, you know, located on needsmaporg, but we also have created like almost 40 other maps using GIS technology. So those maps are whether theme-based, for instance, like poverty or education needs, or, like you know, disasters, or you know they can also be like project-based, for instance, like you know, if you work with the private sector, and they come up with the idea of, you know, leveraging, like productivity for SMEs. So we come up with an SME productivity map of Turkey. So you know, this is like, as we love to call it, like you know, is technology as service and those all products, all of those products, they use the same kind of, you know, gis technology and it can make visible data. It can make visible, you know the data. It can be both, like you know, needs based or just, you know, research based data.
Speaker 4:For instance, like you know, for IDEMA, we also, you know, develop maps for private sector, but you know this is the same technology team that is building the map. So, for IDEMA, for a private sector project, we develop, you know, microplastics in Turkey's water map. So you know, this map, you know, showcases, you know which, like you know, seas or you know rivers of Turkey are more populated with microplastics. So this is only to show the data. And then, of course, there will come a phase where you know, private sector or you know government agencies will be, you know, invited to show, you know the results through the map and take, you know, according, actions. So you know, sometimes it's, like you know, action driven. Like you know, maps, sometimes they're just prepared in order to show the accurate data so that the decision makers have, you know, a tool to, you know, base their efforts on.
Speaker 2:Wow, I want to go forever about the possibilities and opportunities this opens to all of us, but we're kind of out of time so I have to jump to our final question. Our network is ironically called do not smile, because we need to make sustainability a subject that brings happiness into the world. So what object, place or person always makes you smile?
Speaker 4:well, there are many, but many. But you know, I will say that you know my two daughters, like you know, talia, 15, and Neva, five years old. They always make me smile, you know, with their funny stories, although you know those stories are, you know, light years away from each other because of the age gap. They are different worlds, but you know even the memory of our long conversations. You know it makes me smile when you know when I'm away from them on field visits and on, you know, mostly on difficult situations on the field.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can say that oh say, that's a beautiful thing. I think we can see their smiles too. Now we're all imagining it. It's a beautiful thing. Well, listen, we've loved talking to you and, as I said I was before we came on this podcast. I was reading a piece in the new york times about a tech bro doing all sorts of bad things in america, and you have. You've rekindled my belief in technology as a force for good, to say I'm I'm going away.
Speaker 2:That's another I'm going away a happy man, exactly, damla, you better wrap us up so thanks to everyone who has listened to our Good Guys podcast, brought to you by the Do Not Smile network of agencies.
Speaker 3:And make sure you listen to future episodes, where we'll be talking to more amazing people about how we can work together to create a more sustainable future. So, damla, see you soon.
Speaker 4:Bye, bye. Thank you, steve. Good Geist, good Geist.
