Boston SOHS 2018 panel discussion: Localisation, conflict, data and assumptions

Despite it being the last day of term, students and academics packed the ASEAN auditorium at the Feinstein International Centre in Tufts University to discuss how the humanitarian system has performed in the past three years.

Dan Maxwell, the Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security who chaired the event, underscored the value of these discussions from the outset: ‘The State of the Humanitarian System report is THE means to know how we, humanitarians, are doing. It is a big deal’.

The panel continued to highlight the importance of looking back at what has worked and what hasn’t by drawing on examples from their own experience. Localisation, conflict, data and assumptions were the topics which dominated the discussion.

Localisation and conflict

Polly Byers, Executive Director of CDA Collaborative, led the discussion on localisation, the importance of acknowledging the system’s failure on this front and the need to act fast for localisation to work: ‘We are going through a time of huge change in the humanitarian landscape and, for those who’ve been in the sector for years, it is easy to miss the seismic nature of these changes. We’ve been slow to listen and slow to react’.

Localisation is not just about direct funding, added Carlos Mejia, Director of Humanitarian Programmes and Policy with Oxfam America: ‘Localisation is about participation in decision-processes’ he stressed. Isabella Jean from CDA echoed this: ‘The issue is that the agenda is long shaped before local communities are invited to the table. Localisation is relational, it is about what we get to decide, it is about power. But that is hard to measure’.

Questions from the audience also touched on localisation related to conflict. When asked about this, Byers stressed that supporting localisation when locals may be party to conflict is a very real issue, especially in circumstances where the government has had a role in the conflict. ‘It is not a blanket ‘money goes to X country’, it has to be done in a case by case approach’ she concluded.

Alex de Waal, ED of the World Peace Foundation and author of ‘Famine that kills’ amongst others, intervened from the floor highlighting that there is a limit to what humanitarian action can do. ‘The idea that humanitarian action could be a substitute for local action has quickly fizzled out. Humanitarians are more modest now and that has resulted in dynamics in the division of labour and advocacy. Difficult dilemmas arise in those fields now: how humanitarians get involved in high political stances to stop conflict, as we see in Yemen today’.

Data and assumptions

Anastasia Marshak, a PhD candidate at Feinstein who was also part of the panel, drew attention to the fact that a lot of what we do in the humanitarian sector is not evidence driven and that there is a huge gap between what we don’t know and what we think we know. Her recent research into seasonality of acute malnutrition in the Sahel is a blatant example of this. The work challenges the assumption from UN agencies that acute malnutrition coincides with a peak of food insecurity, which happens after the rainy season. The picture that emerged afterlooking at the data was very different: there is not only one peak in food insecurity after the rainy season but two, and the biggest one actually takes place in the dry season. Her findings were all the result of secondary data analysis, which she sees as a beam of light amongst the lack of use of evidence to inform and improve humanitarian action.

Patrick Vink, from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative focused on another aspect of data: the implications of how we collect and use it. He flagged that humanitarian organisations are becoming data organisations and we need to rethink what this means: ‘Affected people need to provide data to get cash, for example, but they can also say no to sharing their personal details. So, when consent is tied to humanitarian assistance, is that free consent?’

When asked about the risks and challenges in managing humanitarian data, he flagged that we are creating data-intensive processes (e.g. fingerprinting) despite being faced with a digital divide, as partners on the ground may not be as aware of the risks involved.

This event summary was written by Maria Gili, Communications Manager at ALNAP. 

Event details

The Boston launch of the SOHS 2018 took place on 14 December 2018 and it was chaired by Dan Maxwell, Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security Feinstein International Center

The panel was formed by Anastasia Marshak, Researcher, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University; Polly Byers, Executive Director, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects; and Patrick Vinck, Research Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.