Data That Matters

What is the humanitarian need?

Neither accurate data on the number of persons with disabilities nor information on their specific needs is available in most humanitarian contexts.

In Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, where for nearly one million internally displaced people there is no information available on the number of persons with disabilities reached by humanitarian assistance, nor on which needs have actually been addressed.

How can we reach the persons with the largest needs if their voices cannot be heard? Tackling this knowledge-gap via better data can ensure better planning and targeting of activities to achieve a more inclusive humanitarian action.

What is the innovative solution?

The project will develop a mixed methods rapid assessment tool for data-driven inclusive humanitarian action.

The innovation will make it possible to identify persons with disabilities, and the existing barriers and enablers they face, together with older persons, in accessing humanitarian assistance.

Having more inclusive data is the starting point to a more inclusive project cycle. By drawing on the relative strengths of quantitative and qualitative methods, the rapid assessment tool will ensure the voices and needs persons with disabilities and older persons are made audible -leading to more participation, and bringing their actual goals and objectives to the fore of humanitarian planning and service delivery.

What are the expected outcomes?

A mixed methods rapid assessment tool will be developed in the research phase, which will include a participatory co-creation process with persons with disabilities and older persons in internally displaced people (IDP) camps of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. The combined quantitative-qualitative prototype will then be tested on a small-scale in Cabo Delgado and improved through data-analysis and the co-creative process. The advanced product will then be again tested and finalised prior to dissemination to local, national and international actors. The end-product will be a rapid assessment tool that can feed into local humanitarian planning as well as large-scale, international data generating initiatives by major institutions and humanitarian networks.