Context
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces significant humanitarian and development pressures, where timely, accurate population and mobility data can be critical for effective response.
Mobile phone metadata (call detail records, CDR data) offer a powerful means of generating these insights, but realising its potential depends on regulators having the technical knowledge and confidence to authorise and oversee its use.
We have been supporting decision-making in the DRC since 2018, working with the ARPTC, the country's telecommunications regulatory authority, as a key institutional partner.
As part of this engagement, we’ve worked with the ARPTC to deepen their understanding of how we process and analyse CDR data to produce mobility estimates for humanitarian and development purposes, and how we manage privacy and data protection considerations throughout.
Increasing the ARPTC's understanding of CDR data analytics for good
In February 2026, supported by the King Baudouin Foundation, we delivered a three-day intensive workshop with eight members of the ARPTC's technical staff in Kinshasa. Sessions covered :
- An introduction to the processing and analysis of CDR data
- Techniques for protecting privacy and enhancing confidentiality
- Potential applications of mobility and population estimates across various sectors (health, displacement, humanitarian planning, etc.)
- Interactive sessions and discussions on the institutional and regulatory frameworks required to support the wider sharing of data and analytical outputs.
The impact: A very well received workshop, with participants rating its overall usefulness at 3.8 out of 4.
All six respondents who completed the evaluation gave the maximum score for both understanding ethical and governance considerations, and their likelihood to recommend using mobility estimates.
Participants came away with greater clarity on CDR analysis methodologies, stronger confidence in interpreting and communicating population estimates, and a clearer view of the data's potential. They also identified promising new applications, including infrastructure planning, urban planning and telecoms network optimisation.
Next steps
We will maintain ongoing dialogue with the trained ARPTC team to consolidate progress, while initiating conversations with ARPTC leadership to explore finer temporal granularity in analyses, with weekly or daily internal mobility estimates which are particularly critical in the context of humanitarian crises and natural hazards.
This work forms part of our broader solutions on digital transformation, novel datasets, and the responsible use of AI and data science for public good. We work with governments, regulators, and humanitarian actors to unlock the potential of emerging data sources while ensuring robust privacy and governance standards.
To find out how we can support your organisation, get in touch:
To explore our DRC reports on population mobility and distribution, including our methodology, click on the link below:
Photo gallery
Discover some photos taken during the workshop in February 2026
