Secondary Data Review

Roadmap

The session will be split into 2 parts:

1. General principles of SDR, data processing, and analysis

2. HNO specific discussion

Definition

A Secondary Data Review (SDR) is a rigorous process of data collation, synthesis and analysis building on a desk study of all relevant information available from different sources such as the government, NGOs, UN agencies, media, social media, etc.

Source: ACAPS Technical Brief Secondary Data Review 2014

Type of data

Pre-crisis situation

Crisis situation

Lessons learned Primary data

Operational picture

Key principles

Know what you need to know

Judge your data

Be prepared Dedicate staff

Example of reliability coding

Reliability level

Outcome History of reliability ExpertiseMotivation for bias

Transparency on origin of data

1 Reliable Yes Yes No Yes2 Fairly reliable Yes No No Yes3 Fairly unreliable No No Yes/No Yes/No4 Unreliable No No Yes No0 Cannot be judged

Evaluating quality of data

“It has been 5 years since the worst natural disaster in Burma's history, cyclone Nargis, which affected the lives of 2.4 million people. I was part of UNFPA's emergency response team that travelled to Burma from Europe and United States and since the floods, I've been reflecting on my experience there and lessons learnt. How would the humanitarian response need to change if the same happened again? Delays in the international humanitarian supply chain sent aid workers scrambling for essential supplies at local markets, carrying large sums of money, and buying essential supplies outside the usual procurement procedures. As a result, prices were inflated, making goods more expensive for the Burmese people too. This situation persisted for two to three weeks until supplies started to arrive from outside the country and the humanitarian response stepped up a gear.”

The Guardian, 13.06.2013

Is the data/information useable?

• Relevance• Importance• Completeness

Not useable Useable

Evaluating quality of data

Pakistan is one of three countries left in the world where polio remains endemic, the other two being neighboring Afghanistan, and Nigeria. In Islamabad, with the help of the international community, the number of polio cases in Pakistan has dropped from 25,000 16 years ago, to just over 40 cases this year. But a Taliban ban on vaccinations and attacks on health workers mean that the highly infectious disease continues to spread. Taliban militants say immunizations are part of a Western anti-Muslim plot. The government is working with community and religious leaders to fight back against that belief. Altaf Bosun of the Prime Minister’s polio eradication unit said the lack of accessibility into what he calls “problematic” areas has led to fresh outbreaks. “There is one choice - now I think there is no choice: polio eradication in Pakistan is must now," he said. "If anybody is deliberately sabotaging this one, then he or she is the enemy of the country, I can say this straightforward. We must be one against the polio eradication.”

Voice of America, 23.10.2013

Is the source reliable?

• Qualification• Reputation• Motive for bias

Do not know Unreliable Fairly reliable

Usually reliable

Evaluating quality of data

“The mission assessed the needs for food, livelihood, education, shelter, health, non-food items and protection in all affected villages. Despite efforts to collect disaggregated data on population, most of the affected communities could not provide details.

Education: All community members urged the immediate reopening of the 36 schools which have remained closed since the onset of the violence. Both communities are however still wary of sending their children to school across each other’s neighbourhoods. Since all books and stationery were lost during the violence, an immediate replacement of these items for affected students is recommended. Information available after the mission was concluded indicates that the Ministry of Education is going to respond to this request with its own resources.”

Inter-Agency Mission Rakhine State, Myanmar, 15.10.2013

Is the methodology producing good quality information?

• Credibility• Transferability• Dependability• Confirmability

Do not know

Low quality

Medium quality

High quality

Key principles

Know what you need to know

Be prepared Dedicate staff

Judge your data

Be cautious with figures

What strikes you with these two?

Key principles

Know what you need to know

Judge your data

Be prepared Dedicate staff

Be cautious with figures

Ensure comparability

Be aware of your gaps

Gaps within the available data…

…and for the purpose of your assessment

Information needs

Information available

Gaps

Key principles

Know what you need to know

Judge your data

Be prepared Dedicate staff

Be cautious with figures

Ensure comparability

Be aware of your gaps

Working with secondary data

Tagging data

Clean, categorise and store

HNO Categories:1. Key issues2. Underlying Factors3. Geographic location4. Population group

5. # of affected people6. Operational environment7. Date (collected)8. Source9. Realibility

How would you tag this one?

In Lebanon, fewer than 25 per cent of Syrian children are enrolled in public education. Most Syrian refugee children have been out of school for one to two years

UNICEF Press Release, 10 Jan 2014

DateSourceReliabilitySector/Issue

Adm Level Pop. Group

How would you tag this one?

Some people from Quneitra have started to flee to other areas because of the shortage of public services outside the governorate as in Al Kiswa and Al Fadel

Al Watan (local media) 30 Dec 2013

DateSourceReliabilitySector/Issue

Displacement

Adm LevelsGovernorate

Villages

Pop. Group (IDPs)

Reac

tive

TIM

E FO

CUS

pr

oacti

ve

Data driven THOUGHT PROCESS Concept driven

Who, what , where, when, how?

Why?

What does it mean?

What happens next?

Summarizes and validate data

Generalizes, find patterns and trends

Identifies relationships, correlation, causes and effects

Significance, scale, severity, trends

Forecasts

The Analysis process

Descriptive analysis

Explanatory analysis

Interpretive analysis

Forecast analysis

Further reading and tools

ACAPS Technical Briefs:

• Secondary Data Review - Sudden Onset Natural Disasters with annexes (Annexes is a separate download with tools and templates)

• How sure are you? Judging quality and usability of data collected during rapid needs assessments

• Compared to what: Analytical thinking and needs assessment

• Qualitative and Quantitative Research Techniques

http://www.acaps.org/resources/technical-briefs

HNO challenges – sector levelOCHA• Deadlines• Need Comparison Tool (bugs)• Cost-benefit• What to include?

Partners• Link with

planning/funding• Flawed, incomplete,

outdated data

Other sectors• Lack of EiE interest• Conflict of interest• Incomplete data

Internally• Analytical capacity• Comparability• Lack of

granular/disaggregated data

HNO challenges – multi-sector level

1. Lack of interest in the HNO 2. No agreement on process3. Not in time - not in format4. Data not collected regularly5. Unclean data vs. PDF copies6. Needs vs. response7. Lack of granular/disaggregated data

Suggestions1. Engage in a HNO dialogue early

2. If resources allow, have dedicated analysts for data processing

3. Run an ongoing database for secondary data (KISS)

4. Produce two analyses, one sector specific for operational planning (including access to databases), and one for multi-sectoral purposes

5. Try to engage partners within the sector for joint analyses

Further learning options

1. Take a country you know well or are working in, and collect data on the humanitarian situation for the Education sector as of today. Submit either; – Databases– Framework for reliability evaluation– Analysis

2. Submit current HNO work (databases, analysis, etc.)

3. Work on a case study that we will present shortly

Case study• Your task is to analyse what impact the Ebola

outbreak in Sierra Leone has had for the Education sector as of September 2015

• Use only Secondary Data sources

• Store the data in an Excel database

• Limit your analysis to one page

Case study – hints!• Limit your search, don’t dig yourself down

• When analysing, try to go beyond a mere description of the data and explain what they mean, what is important and why it is important

• Remember that your methodology will always be questioned. References and transparency becomes more important the deeper you draw your analysis