The Humanitarian eXchange Language (HXL) initiative’s working group met for the first time on 20 January under a charter to create a common standard for humanitarian data collection and a shared database or catalogue.  The year-long project, which is run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, with funding from the Humanitarian Innovation Fund in November. While standards on how to deliver humanitarian aid exist, the field lacks a coherent system for data management, both in terms of its collection and storage. HXL’s working group, consisting of representatives of various NGOs and UN and national development agencies, decided to focus on “high-value indicators” that can be compared between different organisations and have a big impact on crisis response efforts More here: http://hxl.humanitarianresponse.info/