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Data and Displacement

Project Summary

Data and Displacement assesses the data-based humanitarian targeting of assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in two contexts that are characterised by conflict and high levels of displacement: northern Nigeria and South Sudan. It examines the production and use of large-scale data targeting processes in each case, focusing on the operational and ethical challenges that arise in the collection and use of such data.

The project employs mixed methods, combining a range of data analysis techniques with qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews. It emphasises the importance of involving local stakeholders in the assessment of data-driven processes of targeted assistance, in particular IDPs themselves. In so doing, the project aims to explore issues such as barriers to participation in data collation processes for ‘at-risk’ groups, the implications of data-based targeting on intersecting and spatial inequalities, and the impacts of large-scale data use for humanitarian principles such as ‘do no harm’.

This project is jointly funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (formerly UK Department for International Development – DFID), under the Collaborative Humanitarian Protection Programme.