ReliefWeb API
Do you need to embed ReliefWeb content into your website?
ReliefWeb offers all its content through its API to be consumed by any other service.
- Are you aware on your site or service about the last disasters? Use ReliefWeb API to get the latest updates when a disaster happens
- Do you want to have the latest information about humanitarian training all around the world? Use ReliefWeb API to get ReliefWeb's posted training that fits better with your goals and embed the information into your corporate training system
- and much much more
Jump to: Documentation | Feedback and support | Terms of Service and Quotas | FAQ
The vast majority of ReliefWeb's content is owned by our content partners and contributed for re-publication. The API enables access to ReliefWeb's curated and continuously updated data archive going back to the 1980s. It's now used to serve much of the ReliefWeb products as well as third party sites and apps.
Almost all content visible on the ReliefWeb site is available through its API. The API is built to fit with current API best-practices and is intended to be friendly to developers, as well as machines. It is publicly accessible using HTTP requests and returns JSON data.
Understanding the structure of ReliefWeb's content will help in understanding how the API works, so these documents are intended to make both as clear as possible. For clarification or to suggest improvements, please contact us.
Documentation
Take a look at the API documentation to start using it. The documents have live examples, which means that you can modify the queries and see the results directly on the help page!
Feedback and support
Got questions, feature requests, or noticed something strange? We'd love to hear from you.
If you are an active user of ReliefWeb’s API, please join our API support forum and feel free to ask any question or tell us about how you are using the API.
If you have some questions or feedback, including big ideas for improvements, you can also use our contact form with the Subject “Features”.
Terms of Service and Quotas
Anyone can use the ReliefWeb API. Reports, Jobs and Training data available via ReliefWeb API is contributed by information partners and may contain copyrighted material owned by the original source. You should respect the intellectual property rights of the original source when using content retrieved through the API.
ReliefWeb does not guarantee the accuracy of its data and is not responsible for any damages resulting from the use of API. There are no fees associated with the use of ReliefWeb API.
Changes to the Terms of Service will be announced on the API support forum.
In order to improve its service, ReliefWeb may log your API calls and analyze usage patterns. Please, use the parameter appname in your calls, so we can track the usage of the API for statistical and performance purposes.
Quotas
In order to ensure optimum performance for everyone, the API is restricted in two ways:
- The maximum number of entries returned per call is 1000.
- The maximum number of calls allowed per day is 1000.
We feel that these limitations are reasonable and should not interfere with most applications. If they cause significant problems for your use case, please let us know and we will review on a case-by-case basis.
Frequently asked questions
Does the API offer access to all ReliefWeb data?
Reports, Jobs, Training and associated metadata are accessible through the API. For Job and Training data, only data after 2011 are available.
How far does the data go back?
We have been posting Reports continuously since 1996 when ReliefWeb was launched. UN reports on major disasters from the 1980s are also available. We started carrying Jobs in 2001 and Training in 1998, but data is available only from 2011 onwards.
How often is the data updated?
In real-time, every time content is added to ReliefWeb.
Is there a list showing all data types returned by the API?
Yes, check out the Types of content section in the API documentation.
What does "primary country" mean?
Please see Fields table section in the API documentation. We also explain the meaning of the rest of the fields. For a detailed description of each value, please see the Taxonomy Descriptions page
Can anyone use the API? What restrictions are there?
For details, see the Terms of Service.
Why is there no data for some specific topic before certain year?
As times change, we might change the way we tag content. For example, South Sudan didn't exist until recently, and themes may be added or removed. These changes are infrequent and we do our best to preserve consistency. Please ask on the API support forum for specific cases.
How do I get started?
Head over to the API documentation, play with the examples and feel free to edit them!
Where do I get help?
For details, see the Feedback and support section on this page.
