Conference: 13th Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM13)
Presentation title: Open Source AI Tool for Civil Society Organizations for Policy Development and Advocacy
The project proposed by Cropper was to create a closed GPT model trained in legislation, policy, case law and environmental research to address capacity gaps in CSO policy engagement. It would help CSOs quickly analyze and summarize complex documents, generate insights for advocacy and draft statements or social media updates. The tool would ensure relevant, actionable outputs to support environmental and climate action initiatives in the target regions.
The development of the AI for CSOs tool was part of a larger project to conduct a hybrid Community-Based Disaster Resilience Training programme and to develop two policy support tools for CSOs. Some info on it here:
“The objective of the Community Resilience Training is to enhance knowledge and application of Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) at the community level. The training will incorporate a policy development focus to strengthen the effectiveness of CSOs to engage in shaping and defining CDM policy and regulatory development and implementation at the national level. The Policy support tools, coupled with the training, will provide the information CSOs need to develop their own briefs, a necessary instrument for CSOs to engage national stakeholders more effectively on relevant issues related to policy and legislative reform.”
“The objective of the Community Resilience Training is to enhance knowledge and application of Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) at the community level. The training will incorporate a policy development focus to strengthen the effectiveness of CSOs to engage in shaping and defining CDM policy and regulatory development and implementation at the national level. The Policy support tools, coupled with the training, will provide the information CSOs need to develop their own briefs, a necessary instrument for CSOs to engage national stakeholders more effectively on relevant issues related to policy and legislative reform.”
Akshay Seedath presenting the AI for CSOs tool at CDM13
Akshay is a graduate with a BSc. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from UWI, St. Augustine, where he graduated with First Class Honours. Driven by his analytical mindset and a passion for data-driven problem-solving, he is currently pursuing his MSc. in Analytics at Georgia Tech, focusing on Data Science. He was also a National Open Scholarship recipient and led a winning team for the inaugural D’Hub Challenge hosted by the M.D.T. Akshay’s strengths in critical thinking and attention to detail have guided his transition into Data Science. He aspires to build a career that applies and expands his skill set across various disciplines while contributing to data-driven innovation.