Project overview

Data and Displacement assesses the data-based humanitarian targeting of assistance to internally displaced persons 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 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’.