Business and International Crimes
Peace Implementation network
Information Needs for Planning Post-Conflict Reconstruction
A forum of the Peace Implementation Network, Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies, April 24-25 2003, Oslo
The Forum of practitioners was convened to discuss different methods of
generating social data for planning aid in post-conflict transitions.
The objective of the Forum was to discuss ways to inform on-going planning
processes by exploring the options (methods, tools, etc.) used for generating
social data.
The Forum was a technical level discussion involving practitioners from a number of different multilateral agencies and non-governmental organisations with direct field experience in the implementation or management in a variety of countries and contexts of different methods of generating social data (e.g. surveys, focus groups, participatory research). The meeting was low key and somewhat technical, with a focus on the how of data generation, not the what of aid planning. The question to be asked at the forum included what kind of data is often needed (i.e. not available and/or in demand)? What should be done to generate the needed data? What kinds of tools would be appropriate for generating specific kinds of information?
The meeting was co-chaired by Jon Pedersen and Mark Taylor, both of Fafo AIS. In his opening remarks, Mark Taylor noted:
"There is a real-world demand, a pressing need, for data and information that describes the landscape of insecurity and conflict. To those of us with a background in field operations, that need is a no-brainer. It would seem obvious that these complex situations require good data in order to plan national or international responses.
"Yet all of us can point to decisions being made about the strategy or design of international responses to insecurity or conflict in the absence of any real data. At the same time, the collective body of work present at this table represents real examples of sectors and areas in which data and information have played a key role in shaping decision-making.
"There is not a total lack of data generation or analysis. Far from it. But it does seem to me that the policy community - and by that I mean both researchers and practitioners - has yet to successfully grasp the significance of people-centred data and information for how we think about security. We have not yet comprehensively thought through how people-centred approaches to mapping insecurity should inform policies and practices of human security, conflict prevention, peace-building and peace operations. We hope this meeting will help change that."