Visualizing data in emergency contexts: A spotlight interview with Walter Waelchli | UNSSC

Based in Bangkok, Thailand, with the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), Walter Waelchli specializes in security information analysis, focusing on incident data, conflict trends, and humanitarian reporting. Before this role, he was based in Amman, working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), where he honed his skills in data visualization and analytics to support strategic decision-making.

In this spotlight interview with UNSSC’s Evaluation Learning Specialist Itziar Arispe, Walter shares his experience with the UN Data Analytics Professional Certificate, reflecting on how the training enhanced his expertise in data cleaning, exploration, and storytelling, and how it continues to shape his approach to leveraging data for actionable insights.

Itziar: Hello, Walter! Please briefly tell us about yourself and your professional background. How did you join the UN, and what has your experience been so far?

Walter: I've been working as a UN staff member for four years now, and before that I mainly worked as a consultant with the Swiss Army in UN missions. That's how I got to start working with the UN: it was in Western Sahara and in Somalia.

I've been doing work close to the UN as an implementing partner and in cooperation of peace support since 2012. My background is in information analysis and security risk management. I've focused on armed conflicts, unstable political regions, and the impacts on people’s lives. I’ve always wanted to do analysis on this. While working for the UN Mine Action Service in Western Sahara, I got a big taste of data because the role was more information management than analysis, to support the humanitarian demining operations. They said they had software to use, and they wanted someone to be good with it and able to do some reporting. I started doing that, and it was my first step: data analytics using data software. I really liked it.

I joined UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) four years ago. I spent three years in UNRWA, and now I'm with UNDSS (United Nations Department of Safety and Security) as a security information analyst. Prior to UNRWA, I was based in Amman headquarters in the Department of Security Risk Management; as an analyst, and the role was data intense. I covered the Middle East, all the security incident data, and also the situational awareness incidents, with a lot of things happening in the region. The department wanted to use software data analytics as much as possible to move away from writing reports that people may not read. We adopted the use of Power BI as it fulfilled our needs and was included in the corporate software package the agency had. In addition, we used other software including GIS tools, Excel, to help us collate, cleanse, and exploit the data to produce attractive data visualization reports for decision makers needing a strategic overview.

Itziar: Why was it important for you to pursue the UN Data Analytics Professional Certificate?

I have used data analytical tools for several years, and I wanted to gain more skill in the field; notably in data exploration and visualization, but also in data storytelling.

I have a keen interest in new software available to improve and increase the exploitation of information and data. In my current role, I exploit security incident data, armed conflict data, and humanitarian data – not so much for data storytelling and visualization, but for reporting and for analysis. I showcase trends on how the security situation is evolving on a shorter or longer term and use incidents to promote data-informed decision-making. To achieve this, I use various open and closed source data to complement UN specific data that we have, which often needs converting to a structured format. The use of data analytics software helps to speed up the conversion and cleansing process, resulting in more accurate information.

Itziar: What are some of the most memorable parts of your learning experience with UNSSC on this training?

Walter: I really enjoyed this training. The fact that it was self-paced for a period of six months really enabled me to take some time where I could do a lot of work at one go, but thanks to the face-to-face phase I could also switch off from the training for a period and that was really helpful. When I could not attend webinars due to time zone and work schedule challenges, I was able to view the recordings on my own time. I also enjoyed the platform; everything was available, a lot of additional reading material. It felt comfortable to log in at any time I wished and stop whenever I needed to. I never felt lost or confused.

I enjoyed the entire experience, but the webinars, I would say, were probably the best part. I really appreciate how UNSSC brought in topic experts to speak about their fields. They could tell us what their experience was, in the private sector and in UN organizations. I found that quite a privilege to hear from these different people and to be able to engage with them.

Itziar: Among the different topics, you chose the one on cleaning and organizing the case study. Can you share with us your key takeaways from this case study on the course?

Walter: I chose this because I like data exploration quite a lot. This is something I have to do a lot at work, and it's a critical part of data analytics: to clean, explore, look through the data, and reorganize it. That’s why I chose that part.

I was immediately surprised that I could rely on software to complete tasks I would often do manually. I have not always had such software tools available to take on most of the cleansing, see most errors, and understand how the data is meant to be organized. I wasn’t used to that. Some data analytics tools are quite advanced. And you can imagine that, with AI coming in, they will be able to foresee what you might want, soon enough. It really makes things faster and more accurate. Thanks to the tools UNSSC gave me, I could use data analytics to view the raw data, guide me to potential errors, and propose the best solutions.

At some point, I was worried I might end up over-cleaning the dataset by relying too much on the automatic settings, which sometimes propose faux errors. I learned that was an important aspect to keep in mind: one has to use the tool and verify the results, but not blindly rely on it.

Itziar: Is there anything else that you would like to share with the potential participants of this training?

Walter: We are all very similar in the fact that, at the beginning, data feels like a big mountain to climb, steep: the analytics, its technology, different software – it all feels like it's too difficult at first.

I remember, when we were doing group exercises, how even after the team had smoothly guided us through the difficult parts, it still took some time to get the participants to believe in themselves and realize that the exercises weren’t actually too complicated. Take the knowledge checks, for example: we were put into groups during the webinars, for just five to ten minutes, and we were asked to test some of the things we'd learned. Everyone, each time, was shy; and that, to me, sums up our fear with data analytics technology.

After a few times, people started putting in the effort and the fear went away; yet you could still feel that everyone was slightly embarrassed and unsure. And it actually made me feel comfortable, because I realized everyone feels the same. We're all a little scared or feel slightly embarrassed. We all feel like we should know more. There's so much to learn in data analytics. We still had fun; it just took a little bit of time. So, I would just tell everyone to try to bridge that initial fear, that feeling that it is too difficult or “I'm too old”, or “I won't get it”, because once you start it becomes easy and enjoyable.