CURATORThe IDRG produces an annual report with relevant trends in the field of data use in the context of international development, humanitarian response, and peace and justice. The report is launched every year at the International Data Responsibility Conference and published on this website.
The IDRG maintains a weblog featuring relevant links and reports in the data responsibility space.
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CONVENERIn The Hague, the IDRG hosts the annual IDRG Conference. This semi-academic conference allows professionals in the sector to present their latest work in this field, to raise awareness on key issues and to find support and collaborators for oncoming research. Further, it is the place where the IDRG presents its annual report.
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FACILITATORThe IDRG supports a Fellowship Programme, funded by the Municipality of The Hague. The fellowship program allows IDRG partners to send a colleague to a field location to conduct field research, as part of a cohort of fellows from the IDRG partners. The fellows research is aligned with the annual theme of the IDRG, and is aimed at advancing the debate on data responsibility for vulnerable populations.
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Cross posted from here
By Mark Latonero, Ph.D. of Data & Society, Danielle Poole of HHI/Signal and the Harvard School of Public Health, and Jos Berens, formerly of Leiden University. Published April 2018 The report, Refugee Connectivity: A Survey of Mobile Phones, Mental Health, and Privacy at a Syrian Refugee Camp in Greece, is the result of 2017 IDRG Fellowship field research by Data & Society, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s (HHI) Signal Program on Human Security and Technology, and Centre for Innovation at Leiden University. This study's findings are based on 135 surveys conducted in 2017 of adults amongst the 750 residents at Ritsona Refugee Camp in Greece. Find out more here. |
Cross posted from here
By United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) in collaboration with IDRG and the Leiden University Centre for Innovation Published May 2017 The field book outlines the main risks for staff engaged in mobile data collection and helps promote responsible data collection/storage/sharing in the very complex environment in which WFP operates. Mobile data collection is usually faster and cheaper than face-to-face alternatives. It is also safer for field staff. Thanks to mobile technology, WFP and other humanitarian agencies are now able to gather more information than ever before. WFP has been collecting increasing amounts of information by mobile phone as part of its mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (mVAM) project: in 2016, mVAM conducted 250,000 surveys in over 30 countries, asking nearly 4 million questions. Mobile technology offers a tremendous opportunity to communicate better with people in humanitarian settings. However, these new capabilities also entail privacy and security risks for people and the communities where mobile surveys are implemented. |
Cross-posted from here
By United Nations Development Group (UNDG), developed by UN Global Pulse with contributions of the Global Pulse Privacy Advisory Group as well as other private and public expert stakeholders. Published 2017 This document sets out general guidance on data privacy, data protection and data ethics for the United Nations Development Group concerning the use of big data, collected in real time by private sector entities as part of their business offerings, and shared with UNDG members for the purposes of strengthening operational implementation of their programmes to support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. The Guidance Note is designed to:
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Cross-posted from here
By Faine Greenwood, Caitlin Howarth, Danielle Escudero Poole, Nathaniel A. Raymond, Daniel P. Scarnecchia With reviews (among others) from Jos Berens (Humanity X/IDRG), Gideon Shimshon (Leiden University, Centre for Innovation) and Stefaan Verhulst (The GovLab at New York University) Published: January 2017 The Signal Code articulates five human rights to information during crisis:
In the past decade, humanitarian actors and affected populations alike have integrated advances in information communication technologies (ICTs) and the digital data they produce into humanitarian responses to crises. These crises include natural disasters, armed conflict, other forms of complex emergencies, and political unrest. This adoption and absorption of ICTs and digital data by a diverse ecosystem of actors not only profoundly affects how humanitarian action now occurs, but also fundamentally transforms the very ways that crises unfold in the 21st century and the impacts that these crises have on populations. However, these operational and technological changes are occurring without an accepted rights-based approach (RBA) for conducting humanitarian information activities (HIAs) in the present era. The authors of this document believe that creating this rights-based approach is essential. Some in the humanitarian community may assert that the application of an approach based on rights to address the complex issues raised by the intersection of data and information in crises is either limiting or insufficient compared to a more needs-based approach. However, a needs-based approach, when the specific rights relevant to data and information in crises have not been either identified or clarified, is fundamentally impossible. Therefore, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Signal Program on Human Security and Technology (Signal Program) has created “The Signal Code,” with the purpose of identifying, defining, articulating, and translating existing international human rights standards into the context of HIAs and the use of information, data, and ICTs in humanitarian contexts. |
Cross-posted from here
By UN Global Pulse with the support of Leiden University Published: December 2016 In 2014, Global Pulse established a Data Privacy Advisory Group comprised of experts from public and private sector, academia and civil society from around the world. The members of the Privacy Advisory Group (PAG) engage in regular discussions on the challenges and possible solutions to privacy protective uses of big data for development and humanitarian purposes. Between 2015 and 2016, the Group has actively participated in discussions through a series of organised conference calls, small meetings and convened for an in-person two-day expert meeting in The Hague. The meeting was held on the eve of the 37th Conference of Data Privacy and Data Protection Commissioners to advance the dialogue on data governance and responsible use of big data. (Full agenda of the October 2015 PAG meeting in The Hague is available here.) We are now pleased to publish a brief report on the selected issues and recommendations related to the use of big data in development and humanitarian contexts that emerged from the PAG discussions. Key topics in the report include:
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Cross-posted from here
By Nathaniel Raymond and Ziad Al Achkar (Harvard Humanitarian Initiative), Stefaan Verhulst (The GovLab at New York University) and Jos Berens (Leiden University Centre for Innovation). It was edited by Lilian Barajas (OCHA) and Matthew Easton. Published: May 2016 Building data responsibility into humanitarian action is the first UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs think brief to explore what constitutes the responsible use of data in humanitarian response. It was co written by the Signal Program, NYU GovLab and the Center for Innovation at Leiden University. This paper identifies the critical issues humanitarians face as they strive to responsibly use data in operations. It also proposes an initial framework for data responsibility. |
Cross-posted from here
By Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory @NYU (GovLab) Published: July 2016 New report by Jos Berens, Ulrich Mans and Stefaan Verhulst: “Recent years have witnessed something of a sea-change in the way humanitarian organisations consider and use data. Growing awareness of the potential of data has led to new enthusiasm and new, innovative applications that seek to respond to and mitigate crises in fresh ways. At the same time, it has become apparent that the potential benefits are accompanied by risks. A new framework is needed that can help balance the benefits and risks, and that can aid humanitarian organisations and others (e.g., policymakers) develop a more responsible approach to data collection and use in their efforts to combat natural and man-made crises around the world. The report we are releasing today, “Mapping and Comparing Responsible Data Approaches”, attempts to guide the first steps toward such a framework by learning from current approaches and principles. It is the outcome of a joint research project commissioned by UNOCHA and conducted in collaboration between the GovLab at NYU and Leiden University. In an effort to better understand the landscape, we have considered existing data use policies and principles from 17 organisations. These include 7 UN agencies, 7 International Organisations, 2 government agencies and 1 research institute. Our study of these organisations’ policies allowed us to extract a number of key takeaways that, together, amount to something like a roadmap for responsible data use for any humanitarian organisation considering using data in new ways. We began our research by closely mapping the existing responsible data use policies. To do this, we developed a template with eight broad themes that determines the key ingredients of responsible data framework. This use of a consistent template across organisations permits us to study and compare the 17 data use policies in a structured and systematic manner. Based on this template, we were able to extract 7 key takeaways for what works best when using data in a humanitarian context – presented in the conclusion to the paper being released today. They are designed to be broad enough to be broadly applicable, yet specific enough to be operational and actually usable….(More). |