I was touched by the story a Gambian migrant shared with me. After he embarked on a journey to Italy, looking for better job opportunities, migration officers stranded him in the middle of the Saharan border between Libya and Niger.

This account is a good overview of my summer experience as an information management intern at IOM-UN Migration in The Gambia. My objective was to help their data-heavy reports give justice to the unique human experiences they intended to portray. My main task was to introduce technology and human-centered design principles to visualize data that resonates with IOM’s audience. As a result, I conducted workshops on storytelling using Power BI, a data visualization software available but not used by the IOM staff. On the other hand, I used the R programming language to automate their data cleaning process. In addition, I designed a data quality management checklist to help them monitor and trust data processes.

I hope these activities will help IOM-UN humanize their reports. This experience was a fantastic opportunity to practice technical skills while learning about migration.

Note: This internship story was originally published on the medium site of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, where Juan Fernando is a McHenry Fellow for Global Public Service (see here).