ICTs in Humanitarian Response: A Learning Review of a Three-year, Five-country Programme

“…it is important to stress that ICTs are never a replacement for good-quality programming. Right from the design stage of any programme, the alignment to quality programmes and human processes must be emphasized to allow exploration of the enabling role of ICTs.”

This document is designed to be a learning report focused on pulling out key lessons and good practice for the introduction of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) in humanitarian contexts. It is based on the experiences of the Scaling Humanitarian ICTs Network (SHINE) project, which introduced appropriate tools, such as mobile data collection, digital registrations, and electronic voucher systems, in five countries representing varied contexts and humanitarian situations - Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Indonesia, and Iraq.  The objective of the SHINE project was to improve the quality and efficiency of humanitarian delivery in the five countries through the adoption of ICTs, and at the same time explore the conditions and operational environment that allow for the successful introduction of ICTs in order to highlight keys factors for success as well as lessons learned that could be used by organisations working in humanitarian responses to improve efficiency and effectiveness of programmes. Implemented by Oxfam, SHINE ran from June 2014 until March 2017 and was funded by Sida. 

As explained in the report, “While the rapidly developing digital landscape holds much promise for humanitarian actors, pathways to digitize are not straightforward. The proliferation of tools developed by private sector actors and by NGOs [non governmental organisations] themselves has resulted in models with different pros and cons, making it difficult to choose the most appropriate solutions. Not least, the fact that technology itself is only a small part of the equation as the success of application is dependent on quality programming, team make-up, human processes and the operational environment.” SHINE therefore sought to demonstrate - through projects with a wide breadth of contexts, geographies and humanitarian responses - how ICTs can support certain processes, including areas where it is appropriate to innovate or try new things, and areas where enough knowledge and experience makes it conducive to streamline tools and approaches.

The five outcomes of the SHINE project are:
Outcome 1: Needs assessments are more timely, accurate and efficiently administered through mobile data collection tools.
Outcome 2: Beneficiaries are more effectively registered and delivered essential services through mobile technology.
Outcome 3: Monitoring of humanitarian activities is more effective, efficient and transparent through use of mobile data collection, promoting greater accountability.
Outcome 4: Beneficiary accountability mechanisms are more effective and efficient through the use of information communications technologies.
Outcome 5 (cross cutting): Increased awareness by peer agencies, the humanitarian sector and donors about successful approaches to increase quality and effectiveness through ICTs (Involves shared learning during the whole cycle of the programme).

The following are examples of some of the main activities in each country:

• In Mali, Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS) was deployed to facilitate the effective registration and delivery of essential services to communities in the north.  Mobile survey tools supported the monitoring of these activities. 
• In Iraq, ‘One Solution’ e-voucher technology was piloted to support registration and distribution for a voucher-based programme in Kirkuk. This system was designed to support the registration of beneficiaries, as well the provision of vouchers which enable beneficiaries to purchase pre-agreed goods from vendors with which agreements have been made.
• In Ethiopia, mobile data collection software Mobenzi was used to collect information during assessments and project baseline activities to improve the speed with which information is processed and to inform faster decision making. LMMS was used to register beneficiaries to enable efficient delivery of services, as well as reduce fraud.
• In Indonesia, seven local partner organisations across the country were trained on the use of mobile data collection software Mobenzi as part of preparedness measures.
• In DRC, exit surveys and Post Distribution Monitoring surveys were conducted using Open Data Kit (ODK) and Survey CTO, significantly reducing the data collection and subsequently allowing Oxfam to share survey findings with communities much faster.

The report is based on a literature review; including the internal interim evaluation, monitoring reports, notes from country learning events, and write-ups of focus group discussions.  It sets out to answer the following questions around five key criteria: 

Effectiveness
1. What are the main factors that have blocked SHINE or enabled it to achieve its objectives?
2. What did Oxfam do, or what should it have done, to support country teams to spot and capitalize on critical junctures in time during the programme?
3. How were decisions taken about programme design, and how did this contribute to effectiveness, efficiency and achievements of SHINE in the countries involved?

Relevance
4. Did the SHINE project take gender and the empowerment of women into account? How was this done?
5. Was the SHINE design and subsequent implementation approach relevant to the context in the individual country?

Efficiency
6. To what degree were the resources of the programme adequately planned for and used in- country?
7. What was the added value (or cost) for the countries involved in terms of the related funds and the management/coordination of the programme?

Sustainability
8. To what extent has SHINE successfully contributed to shared learning in Oxfam and beyond about the use of ICTs to improve the quality and efficiency of aid across the humanitarian project cycle? What were the most successful models to bring about long-term sustainable change through the integration of ICTs?

ICTs in Humanitarian Response
9. What conditions and choices are there for exiting, scaling up, handover, or other types of transitions for the use of ICTs in humanitarian programmes in the individual country?

Findings are discussed in detail in the report according to these five criteria. The following are just a selection of some of the key findings around project successes and lessons learned (as offered in the conclusion of the report):

Project successes

• Significant progress has been made in achieving the outcomes in SHINE, where ICTs have proven to save time, promote accuracy and ensure responsive use of data across multiple humanitarian processes.
• Human process has been proven to be just as – if not more – important than ICTs themselves. While ICTs can enable time savings, efficiency and accuracy in data, to be effective they need to align with quality programmes, effective design, and skilled staff to ensure rigorous use and application of data.

Lessons learned

• It is crucial to recognise the need for sensitisation and development of trust with communities and that ICTs are not appropriate in some contexts because of community perceptions. Connectivity still poses a significant challenge for the adoption of ICTs and there remains high demand for solutions which can work at least partially offline.
• There is often an expectation that there is a single tool for multiple applications and contexts, but the reality is there is no one-size-fits-all. Focus needs to shift to considering a set of specialised functions which can be matched to the context or need. With realisation of the growing number of discrete tasks, more work is needed on integration of different tools and interoperability of data sets so these functionalities and ultimately the data can be pieced together, allowing for an interoperable and much broader toolkit as data sets are stored in accessible locations with comparable analysis drawn between them.
• Too many assumptions are made about the extent to which ICTs in isolation could enhance analytical capability; it is crucial to understand that data processing tools are not a replacement for monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) or research expertise and rigor.

Finally, the report offers a list of recommendations based on the review findings.  The following are just a selection:

• In the event that a new country office is interested in ICTs, some key considerations to budget for are hardware, licences and training.
• All humanitarian field staff, programme managers, and technical teams need to be equipped with basic knowledge and skills to use ICTs, as it increasingly becomes a crucial component of humanitarian delivery.
• More attention is needed for coordination and involvement of partners to ensure that the uptake of ICTs is sustainable and can promote collaboration.