Data–based humanitarianism in Nigeria and South Sudan

Source: Data and Displacement Project Fieldwork

Written by: Funke Fayehun, Briony Jones, Leben Moro and Vicki Squire

This blog from members of the Data and Displacement team explores barriers that emerge in the context of data-driven approaches to humanitarian protection.ⁱ

How far can a data-driven approach to humanitarian protection foster increased participation and improved outcomes for IDPs? We address this question based on an analysis of interviews with displaced persons (IDPs) and stakeholders in Northeastern Nigeria and South Sudan. Our findings highlight the ways that the production and use of data in itself generates challenges for the participation of affected communities, with protection outcomes compromised by a range of contextual, specific and systemic barriers.

Northeastern Nigeria and South Sudan

Northeastern Nigeria has seen terrorism and armed conflict over a number of years, including insurgencies by the Boko Haram sect in the 1990s, later allied with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). This has led to deaths, the loss of livelihood and key support systems, and multiple displacements. Findings from our research suggest that there are lapses in the data ecosystems in Nigeria, with likely consequences of imprecise and inaccurate data on humanitarian assistance and planning.

South Sudan gained independence on 9 July 2011, enabling the return of millions of displaced persons. However, due to the outbreak of civil war in 2013, ongoing political battles and intense violence, largely along ethnic lines, has caused catastrophic repercussions for civilians. As of 2021, 2.34 million South Sudanese were refugees in neighboring countries while another 1.615 million were IDPs. Despite resolution in 2018, our research indicates that the generation and management of data on IDPs in the country have significant shortcomings.

Exploring the Challenges:

1. Technological and infrastructural barriers

In Northeastern Nigeria, there are both personnel and equipment gaps, which limit capacities for data collection and storage. The lack of equipment and well-trained personnel limits the coherence of data storage and handling processes, which differ across organizations. Divergent data banks across institutions and actors, along with reliability and systematisation issues in some cases, mean that there is a multiplicity of data.

Most South Sudanese NGOs do not generate sufficient and reliable financial resources by which to acquire the necessary expertise and material resources. UN agencies and international organisations are better positioned to acquire and deploy the required capacity to generate and manage data. Representatives of international organisations that we interviewed confirmed use of tablets to undertake headcounts and profiling for returns.

2. Procedural and Administrative barriers in defining vulnerability

Both stakeholders and IDPs highlight irregularities in the classification and identification of the most vulnerable IDPs in camps in Northeastern Nigeria. Many ‘fall through the cracks’ of protection because classification issues both at the point of registration and within the data subsequently collected for planning purposes lead to many needing help being overlooked.

While some stakeholders in South Sudan are involved in projects targeting vulnerable groups as well as general protection needs, many IDPs who we interviewed in camps suggest that the needs of some vulnerable people are not addressed. Those likely to ‘fall through the cracks’ of protection are victims of sexual violence, which is a significant but culturally sensitive issue in South Sudan.

3. Ethical barriers

There is an inconsistent and inappropriate ethical system for data collection from IDPs in Northeastern Nigeria. Many IDPs describe consent as verbal, without proper recording or written documentation and with limited information. In some instances, data collectors do not directly obtain consent from IDPs, but instead, go ahead with data collection after stating the purpose and approval from higher authorities.

In South Sudan some IDPs interviewed for this study expressed distrust or fear about people coming to collect data from them. Some IDPs agreed to give consent because their community leaders agreed to the data collection, and some complain that those who collect data from them do not return and fail to provide feedback.

4. Systemic barriers

Technological innovations intersect with donor pressure, donor agendas, and our research highlights the role of inter-agency competition over finite resources and funding. Data-driven humanitarian assistance is clearly a contested terrain with implications for IDP participation and humanitarian outcomes. Our research indicates that IDPs often have different understandings to humanitarian practitioners of the value of sharing data and expectations of what it should be used for. One told us:

‘I did not ask them. I would want to ask them, but I did not, they came to collect data like you are doing now, but they disappeared’

Conclusion

In reviewing data-driven humanitarian assistance in IDP camps in Northeastern Nigeria and South Sudan, our research points to a range of barriers to improving protection outcomes: technological and infrastructural, procedural and administrative, as well as ethical. Our findings suggest that this requires further investment in personnel and technological infrastructure, more careful attention to classification processes in the identification of vulnerability and need, plus improved ethical practices that take informed consent seriously.

Profile of Authors:

Funke Fayehun, Associate Professor and Head of Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan

Briony Jones, Reader of International Development, Politics and International Studies Department, University of Warwick.

Leben Moro, Director of the Directorate of Scientific and Cultural External Relations, University of Juba.

Vicki Squire, Professor of International Studies, Politics and International Studies Department, University of Warwick.

Notes:

[i] Data and Displacement: Assessing the Practical and Ethical Implications of Targetting Humanitarian Protection is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (AHRC-FCDO) Collaborative Humanitarian Protection Programme (grant AH/T007516/1). We would like to thank the wider research team for their work on this project, including João Porto de Albuquerque, Dallal Stevens, Rob Trigwell, Ọláyínká Àkànle, Modesta Alozie, Kuyang Harriet Logo, Prithvi Hirani, Grant Tregonning, Stephanie Whitehead, HajjaKaka Alhaji Mai, Abubakar Adam, Omolara Popoola, Silvia De Michelis, Ewajesu Opeyemi Okewumi, Mauricio Palma-Gutiérrez, Funke Caroline Williams and Oluwafunto Abimbola. The project team undertook a total of 140 semi-structured qualitative interviews in Northeastern Nigeria and South Sudan, 100 with IDPs and 40 with practitioners, split equally across the two locations. The team has also conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with a total of 42 humanitarians who have expertise in data and information management, from across a range of international organisations and NGOs. We would also like to extend our thanks to Annika Sirikulthada, a University of Warwick Research Assistant who suported preparation of the blog.

Mouzayian Khalil : 15 Dec 2022 15:27 |  Tags: Data-Driven Approach Displacement Humanitarianism Migration Nigeria South Sudan |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Informal networks as sources of healthcare support

Informal networks as sources of healthcare support: How slum dwellers cope with health challenges by talking to each other

Photo by Sheyi Owolabi on Unsplash

Blog written by Chinwe Onuegbu

Access to quality healthcare is a fundamental human right, but this remains a struggle for people living in slums in low and middle-income countries. The term “slum” can be controversial but it is used in this article, in line with a larger project under which the research described in this article is based, to describe poor urban settlements characterised by overcrowding, poor housing structures and an overall shortage of social and health amenities. Globally, one in eight people reside in slums or poor urban settings, and in many African countries, including Nigeria, about 60% or city dwellers live in slums. Public health services in urban cities do not sufficiently cater to people living in the slums, and many are unable to obtain the comprehensive formal healthcare they need.

Staying healthy and fit is particularly essential for people living in slums. Many engage in informal jobs with daily wages, and maintaining health is crucial for maintaining daily household income.

In the face of inadequate formal healthcare services, slum dwellers turn to alternative healthcare options. It is important that we begin to understand these alternatives in order to mitigate any negative consequences and to amplify potential synergies.

My PhD study within the NIHR-funded slum health project

My PhD project was nested within the NIHR funded slum health unit at Warwick Medical School. The unit worked collaboratively with universities in Asia and Africa to map and understand use of health services in slums across both continents.

With my background in Sociology, I recognised the untapped opportunity to explore how health was managed beyond formal medical settings in the slums. My thesis explored a phenomenon known as lay consultation: how people manage illnesses and health challenges by talking to informal network members (e.g. family, friends and neighbours) or other informal online forums or resources (e.g., Facebook friends) beyond medical settings. My study population were the working-age adults in slums in Ibadan (Oyo state), Nigeria, and they were chosen because they were more likely to migrate in and out of the slums, be engaged in work that make them unable to seek care when needed and are likely to own and use mobile devices. These dynamics can shape lay consultation behaviours and network composition. The project adopted a mixed method approach. First, a survey to map how common lay consultation was, which network members were contacted and how influential were informal network members in determining people’s treatment behaviours. Next, interviews were conducted to understand in more depth the connections between speaking to others about a medical problem and actions taken afterwards. The study was done in collaboration with partners from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

The study found that most people experiencing illnesses consulted 1-3 network members including family, friends and neighbours. People navigated through the complexities of social life in slums such as having fewer networks due to busy life and difficulties in having trusted or dependable sources of support, to find people they could talk to. Participants rarely used online informal networks, mainly because many did not have access to such devices, had limited digital literacy, or preferred physical networks. The informal consultations were largely unplanned and taken-for-granted as they were ingrained in everyday life. Yet, within those informal conversations, were exchanges of advice and support- some useful and some not, that shaped how people managed illness experiences.

A striking finding from this study was that, despite living in the slums where the harsh conditions may drive over-reliance on informal networks for health maintenance, slum dwellers were highly agentic in using advice or support from others. People had strategies for coping with health challenges which included ability to assess the relevance of advice they received. Occasionally, they consulted other informal health providers such as local medicine vendors (known locally as ‘chemists’) and traditional healers to confirm advice they received from their network members.

So what?

We now know from this study that lay consultation, that is talking to informal network members, is a common way of managing illnesses in slums. The conversations- whether intended or unintended- contribute to management of personal health. There is a potential to leverage on informal networks to improve knowledge about health conditions and health care access, thereby contributing to strengthening of the health system in poor urban settings. Informal networks, including those existing online, should be recognised as an integral part of the overall health system, and incorporated into health policies and programmes as a means of increasing the coverage and effectiveness of health interventions.

Next steps:

The next step involves working with collaborators at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria on an intervention around lay consultation for slum communities in Ibadan, Nigeria. Our initial idea is to co-design an online health-resource that would provide formal, verified and accessible health advice for people living in the slums. People feeling ill or having health challenges can consult the online resource as part of steps taken to inform their health-seeking decisions. We will work with policy makers, community members and concerned organisations such as NGOs to co-design and promote the resource.

An internal seed fund grant has been obtained from the Warwick International Partnership fund (IPF) to kick start this project. The funding will be used to:

• Disseminate findings from the PhD to study participants, key stakeholders and the general public,
• Engage representatives of slum communities and public health policy makers at the state level in Nigeria to assess the value of lay consultation as an intervention to improve health outcomes
• Build a multidisciplinary collaborative research team from across public health, information technology and social science and other stakeholders (such as Non-Governmental Organizations) for future research on leveraging lay consultation for health benefits in the slums.

In conclusion, interventions that are bottom-up, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches have the potential to tackle the complex issues in slums. The PhD project and planned intervention discussed in this blog exemplify how the intersection between social science and health science can improve health in slums.

Author Bio:

Chinwe Onuegbu is a Research Fellow at the Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK. She recently completed her PhD in Health Sciences at Warwick Medical School. Her research interests include the social determinants of health in resource-constraint settings, and the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. She is also interested in research communication and hosts a Research chat show on YouTube in her free time.

Mouzayian Khalil : 19 Oct 2022 12:33 |  Tags: Health Care Informal Health Support Nigeria Urban Poor |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Colonial legacies, race and the labour market in Trinidad and Tobago

Photo by Rashmi Mathur [The Trinidad & Tobago flag at sunrise]

Colonial Legacies, Race and the Labour Market in Trinidad and Tobago

Written by: Jamelia Harrisand Gianluc Robinson

Recent years have seen increased calls for equality and social justice. In many so-called developed countries, the movement has manifested in efforts to renameplaces, remove/replacestatues and decolonisethe curriculum. In former colonial countries, the renaming, replacing and re-writing is not new, and for some started decades ago. For example, there has been a Caribbean flavour to the syllabus, pedagogy and assessment in the English-speaking Caribbean since the establishment of the Caribbean Examination Council(CXC) in 1972; and the South African curriculum has gone through a plethora of changessince 1994. Several countries reclaimedtheir names post-independence – among them are Belize, St Kitts and Nevis, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, and most recently Eswatini. We no longer speak of Bombay, but Mumbai; and Kolkata rather than Calcutta.

These examples highlight that the ‘decolonisation’ movement is not new in former-colonial states. These countries have long tried to shake the colonial chains and reclaim their identities. Many efforts have been successful as indicated above. Some are more challenging, especially those that are built on deep-rooted institutions.

Institutionsare the rules of the game with respect to how social, political and economic systems are organised and function. They are influenced by social interactions, and oftentimes formalised by laws and regulations. As expected, early institutions shape contemporary ones, and ultimately affect current outcomes. They determinehow a country, its economy and society, prospers (or not). This is true in Trinidad and Tobago – a small island nation in the Caribbean, and former British colony. Although sugar plantations (and agriculture in general) play a limited role in Trinidad and Tobago’s economy sixty years after independence(in 1962), race relations/tensions that were bred and nurtured doing the colonial period continue today, and rears its head in the labour market (among other aspects of society).

The ‘origin’ story

British colonialism in the West Indies used a model of division to control, which “fragments, divides, marginalizes, alienates, and represses certain groups”. These divisions were often institutionalised in laws and policies, and have a high probability of shaping contemporary institutions and development prospects. In Trinidad and Tobago, one of these divisions lay between the Afro- and Indo- Trinidadian communities.

From 1845, seven years after ‘Apprenticeship’ ended in 1838, East Indians (from India) were “imported into Trinidad” to work on sugar plantations as indentured labourers. Remuneration of the indentured labourers undercut that of the former enslaved, and the indentured labourers were offered the promise of land in exchange for relinquishing their free passage home. This, understandably, created tensions between the two groups – which played out in a society already “pervaded by the racist ideology of local and metropolitan whites.”

The subsequent institutionalisation of the Westminster system of government in Trinidad and Tobago hosted, and arguably perpetuated, one contemporary manifestation of this division in the area of race and politics, with one main party predominantly supported by the Afro-Trinidadian population, and the other supported by the Indo-Trinidadian population. Race and politics often enterthe labour market, and debates around these issues emerge most strongly in the lead up to general elections.

Contemporary manifestations

There is a high level of perceived racism in employment. Both the Afro and Indo populations claim to experience levels of racism in hiring and treatment in the workplace. Most studies acknowledge that this may be driven by perceptions on disparities in position, education, access to credit or resources such as loans. Perceptions on racial discrimination interplay with perceived political affiliation as politicians are suspected of providing their supporters and constituents with access to more opportunities and resources than the opposing side.

Recorded historical evidence on differences in positions between Afro, Indo and other races have influenced perceptions. In the immediate post-independence years, mixed, white, Chinese and Syrian populations tended to occupy higher levels of management and business ownership despite comparative or less training or education. Into the 2000s, Afro-Trinidadians weremore likely to be employed in government positions; while the Indo population became more entrepreneurial and were more represented in the private sector and enterprise. However, no major differences in earnings between Indo and Afro populations were reported at the time. Afro-Trinidadians have the lowest self- employmentrates in the country. This may be because they have higher denial rates for business loans, even when accounting for similar factors to other groups. This may hint at some level of discrimination towards Afro-Trinidadians in financial markets. It may also be a result from historical factors, differences in inheritance and cultural/ family differences.

Relatively recent stories in the media have only served to fuel these perceptions. The former Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar, publicly apologisedafter being accused of appointing a junior civil servant to a director position, suggesting patronage ahead of merit. Allegations have not been limited to the public sector, but have also been madein the private sector. These perceptions enter formal channels. A studyusing data from the Equal Opportunities Commission between 2008 and 2013 notes that race/ethnicity was the largest named reason for raising a complaint of workplace discrimination to the Commission.

Addressing the issue

On a more positive note, a 2018 studyargues that racial differences in employment outcomes is relatively low (seven percent on the Karmel-Maclachlan index) and have generally improved over the 1999 to 2015 period. The authors suggestthat when race-based differences exists in labour market outcomes, it is often a result of prior educational differences. These findings indicate some positive change, but also point to the complexities inherent in changing institutions – those interactions and practices deep-rooted in history.

First, perceptions matter. And information is important in shaping perceptions. The 2018 study suggests that labour market outcomes by race may not be as large as perceived. Yet, perceptions held are different. And perceptions matter for racial cohesion. One way of shifting perceptions is through information. The Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical Office (CSO) monitors and reports on labour market data on a quarterly basis. Data is publicly availableby sex, age, educational attainment, type of worker, occupation group, and industry. This data is easy to download and analyse. However, one important variable is absent from the publicly available data – racial/ethnic background. It begs the question, should such data be publicly available given such high public interest in the issue? Arguably, routine monitoring of differences, if/where they exist, is the first step in correcting imbalances.

Second, if it is indeed the case that differences in labour market outcomes by racial groups result from differences in education outcomes, this warrants its own area of enquiry. If some racial/ethnic groups perform better than others, what drives these differences in the Trinidad and Tobago context? And, subsequently, how can policy tackle these issues? Would addressing educational differences highlight other disparities along racial lines?

The first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and reputed historian, Dr Eric Williams, famously remarked and used the slogan ‘Massa Day Done’ – the day of the colonial masters is finished. This sentiment informedmuch of the ideology in independent Trinidad and Tobago, and many other Caribbean islands. Indeed, countries like Trinidad and Tobago are free to choose their path and shape their destiny. It remains that breaking the chains of some colonial legacies, like race relations, is an ever-present challenge.

The scoping research undertaken for this blog was funded by the Warwick Interdisciplinary Centre for International Development (WICID). The authors thank WICID for this generous support.

Authors Bio:

Jamelia Harrisis a Research Economist at Fiscus and Visiting Research Fellow at the Politics and International Studies Department, University of Warwick. Her research spans a range of topics and includes foreign aid and the labour market, political patronage, and government finances.

Gianluc Robinsonis an MPhil Candidate at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. His research is mainly in environmental and marine sciences, though he has an interest in social sciences and data analytics.

Mouzayian Khalil : 21 Sep 2022 14:20 |  Tags: Caribbean Colonial Legacies Labour Race Trinidad And Tobago |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem