‘Using Tech to Collect Data in Dangerous Contexts’ is part of a webinar series on M&E and Ethics in the Digital Age which DME for Peace are hosting.

DME for Peace is a global community of practitioners, evaluators, donors, and academics who share best and emerging practices on how to design, monitor, and evaluate peacebuilding programs. Through greater collaboration and transparency we hope to increase the effectiveness of the peacebuilding field.

During the recent electoral violence in Burundi, Search for Common Ground’s (SFCG) data collection for Conflict Scans was temporarily interrupted in order to guarantee the security of research participants during a highly volatile period. In order to help fill this important gap in conflict research and monitoring, SFCG teamed up with UNICEF to use an innovative new approach to conflict monitoring. By capitalizing on UNICEF’s U-Report SMS reporting system SFCG was able to supplement missing data with a more lightweight, rapid methodology that improved respondent security.

The Conflict Scan, which employs a mixed methodology of surveys and key informant focus group discussions, was drilled down to only 4 key questions; each of which could be asked via 160 characters or less, via multiple-choice SMS messages. The rapid Conflict Pulse was able to cover 4 key pillars, including: current levels of social cohesion, security perceptions, security optimism, and perceptions of the education system’s contribution to youth resiliency to violent conflict. Mapping responses by province enabled targeted follow up research and programming by UNICEF and Search for Common Ground.

Key questions the Talk will address include, How was this approach developed? What are the benefits to using a similar lightweight approach? What are the drawbacks?

Please click here for more information.

Please make sure you register here before the talk in order to get your unique GoToWebinar link.