In the future, more smaller, local aid organisations will be involved in collecting data – but their international partners must not forget they still have important ethical and legal duties when it comes to privacy, says Lori Roussey
Oxfam’s new policy on biometrics explores safe and responsible data practice
By James Eaton-Lee and Elizabeth Shaughnessy The collection and processing of biometric data – data which is linked to the human body or its behaviour – such as fingerprints or facial recognition – has become significantly more common in humanitarian contexts worldwide in the last five years. Few donors or large INGOs have not had a position on biometric data or had some experience rolling this out. But this …
Launching our new training course: Why Data Rights Matter
This month we’ve released our “Why Data Rights Matter” training course. We believe the course will make substantial impact to uphold commitments to make safe, rights-based use of data, and that it is a bridge to further collaboration in this area. Background Oxfam was proud to be an early participant in the Responsible Data movement, publishing our Responsible Program Data Policy in 2015. In it, we outlined a …
Improving data quality with digital data collection
Emily Tomkys Valteri, Alexia Pretari and Simone Lombardini share practical tips to help improve quality in survey data collection, and introduce the latest case study in the ‘Going Digital’ series. Sometimes survey data doesn’t add up: two household members are married to each other and yet have different marital statuses, consent statements have not been fully read, percentages of income …
Questioning the use of biometric technology in humanitarian response
Anna Kondakhchyan shares the findings of new research, Biometrics in the Humanitarian Sector, which looks into the benefits and risks of using biometric technology to register people to receive humanitarian aid. How would you feel if refusal to submit your biometric data meant you were excluded from the provision of humanitarian assistance? Biometrics, the measurement of human characteristics through technology such …
How many identities does a person need to receive aid?
By working together to share data with other NGOs we can be more effective at getting aid to those who need it, and provide greater data privacy and security for individuals. Just as our digital identities are changing so are those of crisis-affected people the world over. Many of us increasingly use facial recognition or finger print scanners to unlock …
Putting responsible data into practice
Rachel Hastie and Amy O’Donnell introduce Oxfam’s new responsible data training resources and their launch event. 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years. Possibly the greatest challenge of the information age is how to manage data properly. As data is increasingly used for needs assessments, feedback, accountability and monitoring; management of …
Geek out with us @ MERL Tech London
MERL Tech – an event exploring the use of technology for monitoring, evaluation research and learning – is coming to London for the first time in February 20-21st 2017. Hosted at the St Brides Foundation by Oxfam and Comic Relief, we are calling for practitioners to submit session ideas and to sign up to attend and become part of our …
Evaluation for strategic learning and adaptive management in practice
Kimberly Bowman summarises some of the discussion and insight from a session on evaluation for adaptive management at the recent European Evaluation Society conference. ‘Adaptive programming’ (a.k.a. adaptive management, adaptive aid) is a hot topic, explored in a number of insightful reports, blog posts, learning initiatives and even manifestos. Many of us sitting in internal monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) …